No. 1 Purdue and No. 2 Arizona topped the rankings. After dominating the Players Era Championship, the Boilermakers received 40 first-place votes from the 61-person media panel, with Arizona receiving six and Michigan receiving 15.
Duke and UConn maintained their spots from last week to finish in the top five. Louisville finished at No. 6, followed by Michigan State, and No. 8 Houston, which dropped five spots after losing to then-No. 17 Tennessee in the Players Era.
Michigan made the Sweet 16 a year ago in coach Dusty May’s first season and looks like a title contender. The Wolverines opened the Las Vegas Tournament with a 94–54 win over San Diego State, which was ranked at the time. 21 Auburn 102–72 and gave Gonzaga coach Mark Few his worst loss in 902 career games with a 101–61 win over the 12th-ranked Zags.
That makes it three wins by a combined 110 points and four consecutive wins by at least 20 points over the last two ranked teams.
“Today was a day to let the world know that we’re here to be the best team in the country and we’re going to continue to do that,” Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg said after the win over Gonzaga.
is increasing
No. 17 Vanderbilt made its biggest jump of the week, moving up seven spots after winning the Battle 4 Atlantis title in the Bahamas.
No. 10 Iowa State moved up five spots after winning three games at the Players Era Championship.
No. 7 Michigan State moved up four spots after lopsided wins over East Carolina and No. 16 North Carolina in the Fort Myers Tip-Off. No. 13 Tennessee also gained four spots, falling back to No. 21 after beating Houston and losing to Kansas.
Fall
No. 23 St. John’s still suffered the largest drop among teams in the poll, losing nine spots after losses to Iowa State and Auburn surrounding a win over Baylor.
Defending national champion Florida dropped five spots to No. 15 after losing to TCU at the Rady Children’s Invitational. No. 12 Alabama dropped four spots after losing to Gonzaga in the opening game of the Players Era.
in and out
No. 21 Kansas returns to the poll after being eliminated last week with three wins in the Players Era.
No. 24 USC is seeded for the first time since the 2023-24 season after three wins in three days to take the Maui Invitational title.
UCLA dropped out of the polls at No. 18 after losing to the Cal Bears 80–72 in the Empire Classic championship game.
North Carolina State fell out of the poll at No. 23 and didn’t receive a single vote after a 1-2 run through the Maui Invitational.
conference clock
The Southeastern Conference had the most teams in the AP Top 25 for the second consecutive week with seven. The Big 12 matched the Big Ten with six ranked teams, the Big East had two and the West Coast Conference had one team.
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