After a wild weekend of college basketball in which the No. 1 and No. 2 teams both lost, No. 2 dropped but No. 1 held steady.
Auburn retained its perch atop the AP Top 25 despite a 90-81 loss to Florida, narrowly holding off in-state rival and new No. 2 Alabama for the top spot in the rankings ahead of the teams’ first meeting of the season Saturday in Tuscaloosa. The Tigers hold a 34-23 advantage in first-place votes over the Crimson Tide and just a nine-point lead overall, setting up a highly anticipated showdown between two of the SEC’s four top-five teams.
Duke’s 77-71 loss at Clemson on Saturday, the Blue Devils’ first in ACC play, led to a one-spot slip from No. 2 into a tie for third with Florida, which rose three spots after handing Auburn its first SEC loss.
Farther down the poll, St. John’s rose to No. 9 for the first time since the final poll of the 1999-2000 season after a big week of wins over Marquette and UConn, and Arizona made the largest leap of this week’s rankings, rising seven spots to No. 13 after wins over BYU and Texas Tech.
Here’s the full poll, along with the ballot of The Athletic’s C.J. Moore:
AP Top 25: Feb. 10
| Rank | Team | Record | Prev | CJ’s vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
21-2 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
20-3 |
3 |
3 |
|
|
3 |
20-3 |
6 |
5 |
|
|
3 |
20-3 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
5 |
20-4 |
4 |
4 |
|
|
6 |
19-4 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
7 |
19-5 |
7 |
7 |
|
|
8 |
18-5 |
10 |
8 |
|
|
9 |
21-3 |
12 |
9 |
|
|
10 |
18-5 |
8 |
10 |
|
|
11 |
19-4 |
9 |
14 |
|
|
12 |
18-5 |
13 |
12 |
|
|
13 |
17-6 |
20 |
11 |
|
|
14 |
20-4 |
17 |
18 |
|
|
15 |
16-7 |
14 |
22 |
|
|
16 |
19-5 |
21 |
13 |
|
|
17 |
16-7 |
16 |
15 |
|
|
18 |
18-6 |
11 |
17 |
|
|
19 |
18-6 |
25 |
20 |
|
|
20 |
18-5 |
24 |
16 |
|
|
21 |
17-6 |
15 |
19 |
|
|
22 |
17-6 |
22 |
23 |
|
|
23 |
19-5 |
NR |
NR |
|
|
24 |
18-6 |
NR |
24 |
|
|
25 |
18-6 |
18 |
25 |
|
|
NR |
18-6 |
NR |
21 |
GO DEEPER
Men’s college basketball Top 25: Why Auburn should still be No. 1
Tennessee lost three of four at the end of January. Florida got beat by 20 at Tennessee to start February. Turns out, there was no reason to worry about either. Both had great weeks, with the Vols beating Missouri and blowing out Oklahoma on the road and the Gators beating Vanderbilt and then notching the most impressive win anyone has had all season, over Auburn on the road. I bumped both teams up one spot, moving them ahead of Houston because their resumes justify it.
Every team in the SEC, maybe even Auburn, is probably going to go through a tough stretch, because the strength of the league is so good. And both Florida and Tennessee deserve some extra credit for dealing with injuries. Tennessee star point guard Zakai Zeigler missed that Florida win and has returned to play the best ball of his season. Florida won at Auburn without starting guard Alijah Martin.
GO DEEPER
Down goes Duke for the first time in 2 months. Is that the worst thing?
Arizona is the hottest team in college basketball, winning 13 of 14 after a 4-5 start. Coach Tommy Lloyd has settled on a rotation that has lifted his team — more of sophomore 7-footer Henri Veesaar and 6-8 freshman Carter Bryant have been the answers — and the Wildcats are leaning more into their abilities to win on the defensive end. They only seem to be getting better, too. As I wrote in my top 25 today, Lloyd has a death lineup of Jaden Bradley, Caleb Love, KJ Lewis, Bryant and Veesaar that has outscored opponents by 53 points in 58 minutes over the last five games. Arizona has a big week ahead, with a road game at suddenly dangerous Kansas State (winners of five in a row) and then a home game against Houston, the team currently sitting atop the Big 12 standings alongside the Cats.
Creighton is back in my top 25 for the first time since the season’s second week. The Jays have won nine straight and have a chance this week to put themselves in position to win the Big East. After hosting UConn on Tuesday, they travel to first place St. John’s on Sunday.
The Jays are built around stars Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth, who are both performing at All-Big East levels. As is typical of Greg McDermott-coached teams, the Jays are shooting a lot of 3s, which leads to excellent floor spacing and efficiency inside the arc — they’re the third-best 2-point shooting team in the country at 60.7 percent. Defensively, they have the nation’s lowest foul rate for the second season in a row, with Kalkbrenner serving as one of the game’s elite rim protectors. The battle with St. John’s will be an interesting one. Creighton held St. John’s to a season-low point total in a 57-56 win on Dec. 31. Because Creighton plays Kalkbrenner in a deep drop, it could come down to whether St. John’s can make pull-up mid-range 2s, and the Johnnies have been shooting it better from that range as of late.
(Photo: Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)
