Back-to-back NCAA Tournament champion UConn narrowly avoided falling out of the AP Top 25 college basketball poll entirely on Monday after an 0-3 week at the Maui Invitational in which it lost to three unranked teams in as many days. The Huskies dropped 23 spots from No. 2 to No. 25 to keep its ranked streak alive. The AP poll has included UConn in its top 25 in every poll since the preseason rankings ahead of the 2022-23 season.
Auburn moved up two spots to the No. 2 spot UConn previously held, while Tennessee, Kentucky and Marquette all benefited in part from UConn’s precipitous fall in the rankings to move into the top five.
No. 1 Kansas retained its spot atop the poll for a fifth consecutive week, though its grasp loosened a smidge after Auburn’s run last week in Hawaii culminated with a Maui Invitational title. The Jayhawks went from earning 51 first-place votes last week to 35 this week. Auburn was the only team to siphon first-place votes from them, earning 26. It had a total of 1,490 points in the poll to KU’s 1,499.
The full AP poll and three takeaways from the latest set of rankings are below.
AP Top 25
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Sunday, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:
Also receiving votes: Michigan State, 108, Arkansas 104, Texas 97, Michigan 95, Arizona State 89, Indiana 72, Drake 58, Xavier 33, Utah State 28, Louisville 27, West Virginia 26, Clemson 25, BYU 24, Dayton 24, Texas Tech 22, Nebraska 22, Mississippi State 20, Ohio State 19, Maryland 13, UCLA 13, Creighton 12, Saint Mary’s 11, Georgia 10, St. John’s 7, Loyola Chicago 4, Florida State 3, DePaul 3, UC Irvine 2, Columbia 2.
Six newcomers join rankings
With 15 ranked teams suffering at least one loss over the past seven days, there were a lot of…
..
