As the college hoops season continues moving forward, the games just keep getting better. Auburn continues to show why it is the country’s top team. The Tigers muscled their way to a victory over the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday and maintained the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 poll for the third consecutive week. Duke, which ran into an unexpected ACC road test at Wake Forest on Saturday, stayed at No. 2 as Cooper Flagg continued his stellar January. Iowa State, Alabama and Florida rounded out the top five spots — as they did in last week’s poll.

With its loss to Auburn, Tennessee dropped two spots to No. 8 while Houston, Michigan State, Marquette, Purdue and Kansas all jumped one spot. Kansas holds the No. 11 spot despite a double-overtime loss to Houston on Saturday in a thriller at Allen Fieldhouse. Kentucky dropped three spots, down to No. 12, after a 74-69 SEC loss at Vanderbilt. Further down the poll, St. John’s and Memphis made significant jumps of five spots after home wins. The Johnnies are ranked 15th after defeating Xavier, and the Tigers, now 19th, blew out UAB by 23 points.

Louisville jumped four spots to No. 21 this week while Ole Miss (No. 23) and UConn (No. 25) took the biggest dips, dropping seven and six spots, respectively. Vanderbilt and Texas Tech are among teams who reached the poll for the first time this year. The Commodores reached the poll for the first time since 2015, and the Red Raiders haven’t received much love in the poll this year. Texas Tech will be tested in a Big 12 slate at Houston on Saturday.

Here’s the full poll, along with the ballot from The Athletic’s CJ Moore:

Is Texas Tech this year’s Alabama?

Last season, Alabama started 6-5 and fell out of the AP Top 25 on Dec. 4 even though most predictive metrics were still high on the Crimson Tide. At that point, Alabama was No. 13 in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency margin rankings and would eventually climb into the top 10. Alabama would not return to the AP Top 25 until Jan. 29, and as we all know, the predictive metrics looked smarter than the humans — Alabama made the Final Four.

No. 22 Texas Tech’s situation is not exactly the same, but the two teams are decent comps. This is the first time this season that Texas Tech has been ranked, despite the fact it has been top 25 at KenPom all year and climbed as high as nine. I was a believer in the Red Raiders in the preseason but dropped them in Week 5 after they lost to Saint Joseph’s and failed to nab a quality win in nonconference play, with their only chance coming against Texas A&M.

But now, thanks to a 6-2 start in the Big 12, their resume-based metrics are starting to catch up — they’re No. 25 in strength of record — and the predictive metrics still love them. Texas Tech is 11th at KenPom, 11th in the NET, 12th at Bart Torvik and ninth at Evan Miya. And it’s looking like the team I was expecting in the preseason. A big test comes Saturday at Houston. — Moore

Is Arizona the next team we need to reconsider?

Arizona is similar to Texas Tech in that the predictive metrics are buying in and the humans are still skeptical after a 4-5 start. But the Wildcats, who started 4-5 and are now 13-6, sit 17th at KenPom, 15th in the NET, 11th at Torvik and 21st at Evan Miya. Arizona’s six losses are all to teams that will either be in the NCAA Tournament or live on the bubble, and Arizona is tied for second place in the Big 12. The Wildcats have a great shot to finally get ranked next week because No. 3 Iowa State visits Tucson on Monday night. This game also has Big 12 implications; the Cyclones are the team tied with the Wildcats.

Also of note when re-evaluating the Cats: They had the 56th-best offense in college hoops when they were 4-5, per Torvik, and they’ve been 16th-best since. This is another team that’s trending back toward what we expected in the preseason. — Moore

Other big games to watch this week

• No. 12 Kentucky at No. 8 Tennessee, Tuesday: This is a tough spot for a Wildcats team that has now lost two in a row and could really use a win. Same for the Vols, who have lost two of three. Tennessee is undefeated at home. Its last home loss? March 9 to Kentucky.
• No. 17 Wisconsin at Maryland, Tuesday: The Terps were No. 26 on my ballot this week. Beat the Badgers and they’ll likely return to the Top 25 next week.
• No. 5 Florida at No. 8 Tennessee, Saturday: Tennessee has the toughest two opponents of any ranked team this week but has the luxury of playing both at home. This is a chance at redemption after the Gators smoked the Vols 73-43 three weeks ago in Gainesville.
• Ohio State at No. 18 Illinois, Sunday: These are two of the biggest roller coasters in college hoops, with some great wins and some head-scratching performances on the resume. The Buckeyes, 11-8 overall but No. 29 in the NET, could help their bubble case with a win.

Required reading

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