Vols still top AP Men’s survey; UCLA rises 7 areas
Dec 30, 2024, 01:44 PM ET Tennessee remains No. 1 after a quiet holiday week in the AP Top 25.
The Volunteers got 41 first-place votes from a 61-person media panel in The Associated Press men’s college basketball survey released Monday. No. 2 Auburn had 20 first-place votes, with Iowa State, Duke and Alabama rounding out the top five.The Tigers picked up speed on Tennessee’s No. 1 area last Monday and did it once again this week regardless of not playing, picking up eight extra first-place votes.Team Record 1. Tennessee 12-0(41)2.
| Auburn 11-1( | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 )3. Iowa St.10-1 4. | Duke | 10-2 5 | |||
| . Alabama 11-2 | 6. Florida | 13-0 7 | |||
| . Kansas 9-2 8. Marquette 11-2 9. Oregon 12-1 10. Kentucky 10-2 11. UConn 10-3 12. | Oklahoma 13-0 13 | ||||
| . Texas A&M 11-2 | 14. Houston 8-3 15. UCLA 11-2 16. | Cincinnati 10-1 17. Mississippi St.11-1 18. | Michigan St.10-2 19. Gonzaga 9-4 20. Purdue | ||
| 9-4 21. Memphis 10-3 22. Illinois 9-3 23. Arkansas 10-2 24. Mississippi 11-2 25 | . Baylor 8-3? The | leading 13 teams stayed | unchanged, following a week in which 12 ranked | groups didn’t | play.Tennessee won |
| its lone | game | ||||
| of Christmas week, beating Middle Tennessee 82-64 last Monday night to retain the No. 1 area for the third straight week.Tennessee is among 4 unbeatens left in men’s Division I basketball, including 3 from the Southeastern Conference, signing up with No. 6 Florida | |||||
| (10-0)and No. 12 Oklahoma(10-0). | |||||
| Drake(9-0)likewise begins this | |||||
| week undefeated.The Gators beat Stetson 85-45, and | |||||
| the Sooners knocked off Grassy field | |||||
| View 89-67. | The |
SEC continued to control the Top 25, with No. 6 Florida providing the league four of the leading six.UCLA’s rise The majority of the
AP Top 25 groups in action recently took on schools from smaller sized conferences.Not UCLA and Gonzaga.The Zags and Bruins played the last marquee game of the nonconference season on Saturday, squaring off in
the first college basketball game dipped into the Intuit Dome, the new home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers.Editor’s Picks UCLA held back Gonzaga’s late rally to take out a 65-62 win behind Eric Dailey Jr.’s 18 points and was rewarded in this week’s survey by moving up seven areas to No. 15. Gonzaga dropped five spots to No. 19 with the loss.Rising and
falling UCLA was the only team to move up more than 2 areas in this week’s poll.No. 24 Mississippi hardly held on to a ranking, dropping eight places following an 87-70 loss to No. 21 Memphis on Saturday.In and out Memphis was the only group to move into this week’s survey after the win over Ole Miss.San Diego State left from No. 20 after losing 67-66 to Utah State on Tucker Anderson’s 3-pointer with 6.8 seconds left.
The Aggies appeared on 14 tallies after the win.Conference watch The SEC leads all conferences with 10 ranked groups. The Big 10 and Big 12 each have five and the Big East 2. The Atlantic Coast, West Coast and American Athletic conferences each have one.