The latest Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball rankings were released on Monday. For the first time in their school’s history, the Auburn Tigers are ranked No. 1 in the nation.
Auburn (18-1) was No. 2 in last week’s rankings but jumped over the Gonzaga Bulldogs for the top spot after defeating No. 12 Kentucky over the weekend for its 15th consecutive win.
The Tigers received 45 of 61 first-place votes. The Bulldogs of Gonzaga received 15 first-place votes, and No. 3 Arizona received just one.
The Baylor Bears (17-2) are up one spot from last week to No. 4. After spending three seasons with only one home loss, the Bears dropped back-to-back games at home, first to No. 13 Texas Tech, then to unranked Oklahoma State. They have since rebounded by winning two consecutive games on the road, first against West Virginia then second against Oklahoma.
In the No. 5 spot is Baylor’s fellow Big 12 Conference rival, the Kansas Jayhawks. Last week Kansas was ranked No. 7, but after two consecutive wins on the road over Oklahoma and Kansas State, the Jayhawks moved up two spots.
Kansas (16-2) will face a tough test in their next game when they host the No. 13 Texas Tech Red Raiders. The Red Raiders tied for the second biggest rise in this week’s poll, moving up five spots from No. 18 to 13.
Texas Tech (15-4) rose in the college basketball rankings following wins at home over No. 23 Iowa State and West Virginia last week.
The biggest riser in the poll was Tennessee, moving up six spots from No. 24 to No. 18 after notching wins against Vanderbilt and LSU last week. At the same time, Connecticut moved up from No. 25 to No. 20 to tie with Texas Tech’s rise of five spots in the ranking.
A Texas team that continues to impress is the Houston Cougars. This week they rose to a tie for the No. 7 spot in the rankings with UCLA. Houston (17-2) handily defeated both of its opponents in the last week. First, they handed South Florida a 74-55 loss. Then they easily dispatched East Carolina over the weekend in a 79-36 trounce.
No opponents that remain on the Cougars schedule are currently ranked, setting the team up with an opportunity to put up a significant number in the win column this season.
Disappointingly for Texas Longhorns fans, the team dropped out of this week’s AP college basketball rankings. The Longhorns were No. 23 in last week’s rankings, but they lost both of their games last week, first, on the road to now-No. 23 Iowa State, then at home to unranked Kansas State in a one-point loss.
Overall, Texas (14-5) has lost three of its last four games. The Longhorns were ranked No. 5 in the AP’s preseason poll.
Just outside the rankings but receiving votes to be included in the Top 25 are the TCU Horned Frogs. TCU (13-3) had an impressive 15-point win against No. 23 Iowa State over the weekend and a one-point win over Oklahoma last weekend. Sandwiched between the two wins was a heartbreaking one-point loss against Oklahoma State on the road.
In their next game, the Horned Frogs will play the Texas Longhorns in a battle of Big 12 teams that had vastly different expectations before the season, but now both sit just outside the Top 25.