During a holiday week when most top teams recharged before conference play, UCLA and Memphis made the biggest moves in the AP men’s college basketball Top 25 with statement wins over the weekend.

UCLA jumped from No. 22 to No. 15 after taking down previous No. 14 Gonzaga 65-62 in Inglewood, Calif., on Saturday, while Memphis pulled away in the second half for an 87-70 win over previous No. 16 Ole Miss.

The top of the AP poll remained fairly unchanged due to the light schedule, with Tennessee, Auburn, Iowa State, Duke and Alabama holding fast in the top five. But the arrival of conference play in leagues across the country this week presents several opportunities for shakeups.

Here’s the full poll, alongside the ballot of The Athletic’s C.J. Moore, plus some thoughts from C.J. on the new rankings:

UCLA winning with defense

Mick Cronin has a Mick Cronin team again. A year ago, UCLA’s head coach leaned heavily on international recruiting and his defense did not perform to typical Cronin levels, but the Bruins are excelling on that end of the floor once again.

In Saturday’s 65-62 win over Gonzaga, UCLA became the first team this season to hold the Bulldogs under a point per possession (0.944) and rode hot shooting from the outside to get the win. One pleasant surprise has been Eric Dailey Jr., who made 4 of 5 3s and led the Bruins with 18 points. Dailey has already made 15 3s this season and is shooting 48.4 percent from deep after making only 19 3s as a freshman at Oklahoma State.

But make no mistake, this team is winning because of its defense, now up to No. 4 in adjusted defensive efficiency at KenPom. In a wide open Big Ten race, the Bruins are looking like the favorite. They’re already 2-0 in league play and have a road win at Oregon. They do have some key tests coming up with road games against Nebraska and Maryland, plus a home game against Michigan sandwiched between. It’s arguably the toughest three-game stretch the Bruins will have all year.

Memphis has great resume, bad metrics

I try to lean on metrics, the eye test and resume when building my rankings every week, and Memphis is a tricky team to evaluate. I’ve watched the Tigers the last two Saturdays. In their 79-66 home loss to Mississippi State on Dec. 21, they looked sloppy and sped-up. Then this past Saturday in a 87-70 win over Ole Miss, the Tigers looked comfortable in a chaotic up-and-down game, and PJ Haggerty and Colby Rogers played like one of the best scoring guard combos in the country.

Memphis is tied for the second-most wins against top-50 teams in ESPN’s BPI metric with four. The Tigers also have a not-so-great home loss to Arkansas State on the resume — that one could look better later this season — and the metrics don’t love them. Memphis is No. 35 at KenPom, No. 46 at Bart Torvik and No. 42 at Evan Miya. The resume is good enough, however, to look past that, and that’s why I ranked the Tigers this week.

Drake makes its debut on my ballot

Drake is another team that the metrics don’t love — No. 68 at KenPom, No. 61 at Torvik and No. 67 at EvanMiya — but some preseason bias is still weighing those rankings down. (Drake started at 133 at KenPom.) Drake also plays low-possession games and often does just enough to win. But the resume is impressive, especially for a mid-major team. The Bulldogs have three wins over high-majors (Miami, Vanderbilt and Kansas State) and are one of four remaining unbeaten teams in Division I.

This is one of the best stories in the sport. Ben McCollum won four national championships at Northwest Missouri State and is one of the most-respected coaches in the sport, and once he finally got his Division I shot, he brought four of his D-II players with him as starters. They play great defense, are extremely patient offensively and rarely make mistakes. It’s a team that you appreciate more the more you watch, and Sunday’s 65-46 win over a solid Belmont team was another clinic. I was with Drake behind the scenes a few weeks ago against Kansas State and will have something coming on this group soon.

Conference play is finally here

After a mostly slow weekend, this is a great week of games, with conference play starting for many leagues and getting restarted in the Big Ten, Big East and ACC. Here are the best five games of the week that could impact next week’s rankings:

St. John’s at Creighton (Tuesday, 4 p.m., Peacock): St. John’s passes the eye and metrics test, but its resume isn’t great. The Johnnies still don’t have a win over a top-50 KenPom team, and this wouldn’t likely be that — Creighton is currently 52 — but it’d be a Quad 1 win, and St. John’s currently has only one of those.

Illinois at Oregon (Thursday, 10 p.m., FS1): Illinois is arguably the most talented team in the Big Ten, Oregon is one of the most experienced, and both of these teams look like conference contenders, but the loser will be in a hole at 1-2 in Big Ten play.

Michigan State at Ohio State (Friday, 8 p.m., Fox): The Buckeyes are close to returning to the rankings, and a win over the Spartans might get them there. This is also a huge opportunity for the Spartans, who could jump out to a 3-0 start in league play.

Florida at Kentucky (Saturday, 11 a.m., ESPN): Florida has played only one true road game so far, and that was at Florida State. Some are still skeptical of the Gators, who have yet to beat a team that is currently ranked. That would change if they could knock off Kentucky, which is looking to rebound from a blowout loss to Ohio State right before Christmas.

Maryland at Oregon (Sunday, 4 p.m., Peacock): Big week for the Ducks, who host two of the Big Ten’s most talented teams. Maryland is on a West Coast swing that starts Thursday at Washington. The Terps are 0-1 so far on the road, losing at Purdue, and they could emerge as a Big Ten contender if they were somehow able to win both road games this week.

(Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)