College Basketball Rankings: Baylor Slides, UT Re-Enters Top 25

The latest Associated Press Top 25 for men’s college basketball were released on January 31. The Auburn Tigers of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) remain the No.1 team in the nation for the second consecutive week. 

Auburn (20-1) earned 49 of the 61 total first-place votes to extend its first-ever No.1 ranking into another week. The Tigers have won 17 consecutive games, with its lone loss occurring in double-overtime to Connecticut in November 2021. 

Auburn picked up a narrow 55-54 road win over Missouri before handily defeating Oklahoma 86-68 at home on January 29 as part of the ninth annual Big 12/SEC Challenge. 

The Big 12/SEC Challenge is a series of ten games that happens midseason between members of the two conferences. The SEC won the edition this year with a record of 6-4. 

The biggest poll riser this week is a beneficiary of the annual challenge. Kentucky (17-4) from the SEC rose seven spots to the No.5 ranking after winning by 18 points on the road over Kansas on January 29.

The No.5 ranking is the highest for Kentucky since the 2019-20 season when they spent one week at the No.1 spot. The SEC has two teams in the top five for the first time since the 2018-19 season, when Kentucky was fourth and Tennessee was fifth. 

Rounding out the top five is Gonzaga, which received the other 12 first-place votes, followed by UCLA at No.3 and Purdue at No.4. 

Kansas (17-3) was No.5 last week but dropped five spots to No.10 after the loss to Kentucky. They are the second-highest ranked team from the Big 12 after the Baylor Bears, who dropped four spots to No.8 in rankings this week. 

Baylor (18-3) has lost three of its last six games after starting the season 15-0 and spending five weeks as the No.1 team, including an 87-78 loss on the road Saturday to unranked Alabama of the SEC.

The loss snapped the defending streak of the champion Bears (36 straight wins against non-conference opponents dating back to 2019). The defeat by Alabama also ended the team’s streak of 14 consecutive wins in road games.

Another streak that ends with the Baylor slide is that this poll now marks the first time that the Big 12 has not had at least one team in the top five since the final vote of the 2018-19 season.

Dropping one spot to No.14 is the Texas Tech Red Raiders. After dropping a double-overtime game against Kansas last week, the Red Raiders rebounded by powering past Mississippi State of the SEC in a 76-50 trounce in Lubbock.  

Texas Tech (16-5) will have a visit from a familiar opponent. Their next game will be against the No.23 Texas Longhorns and their coach Chris Beard (who was hired away from the Red Raiders after last season). 

The Longhorns re-entered the rankings for the first time this season. Texas (16-5) won on the road at TCU 73-50, then they defeated No.22 Tennessee of the SEC in a 52-51 nail-biter in front of a sold-out crowd in Austin. 

The highest-ranked team from Texas is now the Houston Cougars (18-2) of the American Athletic Conference. They rose one spot to No.6 after defeating UCF 63-49 on January 29.