Ahead of one of college basketball’s busiest weeks of the regular season, Kansas remains at No. 1 in the men’s basketball Top 25, with UConn, Gonzaga, Auburn and Iowa State rounding out an unchanged top five.

Thanksgiving week is littered with ranked matchups and potential blue-blood clashes within the neutral-site tournaments taking place from the Bahamas to Hawaii and everywhere in between. The Maui Invitational, which features No. 2 UConn, No. 4 Auburn, No. 5 Iowa State and No. 12 North Carolina, among others, tips off Monday afternoon. In Las Vegas, Kansas and Duke clash Tuesday night, while the eight-team Player’s Era Festival tips off with No. 6 Houston, No. 9 Alabama, No. 20 Texas A&M and more in action.

Here’s the third men’s basketball AP Top 25 of the 2024-25 season, along with C.J. Moore’s ballot and analysis of the new rankings.

C.J. Moore’s arrivals and departures

This week I moved out Creighton, St. John’s, Illinois and Michigan. Creighton was a team I was skeptical of in the preseason, and a 74-63 home loss to Nebraska over the weekend, combined with the fact they’re outside the top 25 at the three main computer rankings (KenPom, Bart Torvik and Evan Miya), was enough to give the Jays the boot. Illinois was a harder call, because the Illini lost to a top-10 team in Alabama, but I was close to knocking the Illini out last week, and they haven’t done anything to warrant staying in. Michigan was right on the cusp (No. 28 at KenPom, No. 29 at Torvik and No. 22 at Evan Miya), and it made sense to include Xavier in its place. The Musketeers own a win against Wake Forest, which beat Michigan.

St. John’s was the most difficult team to knock out this week because the Johnnies look like a Top 25 team, and their computer numbers are good. They also took a bad-luck loss against Baylor in the Bahamas, with Zuby Ejiofor missing two free throws to give Jeremy Roach a chance to win the game at the buzzer with a 3. But Sunday’s loss to Georgia made it tough to justify ranking St. John’s if I wasn’t going to rank Georgia. The Bulldogs are on the watch list, but their computer numbers aren’t great.

The other two teams under consideration for removal were Texas Tech and Arizona. The Wildcats stay in for now because their losses aren’t bad — at Wisconsin and home loss to Duke — they’re still inside the top 25 at all three computer rankings and they pass the eye test of a Top 25 team. Texas Tech also has great computer numbers (21/19/14) and its one loss was by one to Saint Joseph’s on an uncharacteristic bad shooting night (4 of 20 from 3). Darrion Williams missed a great look at the buzzer that would have won it.

Mississippi State, another new addition, is inside the top 25 at all three computers and now has two wins against high-majors (Utah and at SMU). Texas beat a hot Saint Joseph’s team, has solid computer numbers and has just the opening-night loss to Ohio State on a neutral floor. I’m still a little skeptical of the Longhorns, but they also took that loss without former Houston/Arkansas wing Tramon Mark, who made his debut last week in the Legends Classic and should help Texas on both ends. Ohio State, another team inside the top 25 at all three computer sites, also rejoins the rankings. That Texas win is starting to look better.

Best games of Feast Week

We have some awesome games and potential meetings this week of teams inside my top 10:

• No. 5 Iowa State vs. No. 4 Auburn in the opening round of the Maui Invitational. A championship-level game to start the tourney. No. 2 UConn could see either Auburn or Iowa State in the championship game Wednesday.
• No. 11 Duke vs. No. 1 Kansas on Tuesday in Las Vegas. The Blue Devils beat Arizona in Tucson on Friday night and look to have put their Champions Classic loss to Kentucky behind them.
• No. 9 Alabama vs. No. 6 Houston on Tuesday at the Player’s Era tournament in Vegas. This top-10 showdown tips an hour before the Kansas-Duke game, making this sportswriter who will be in Vegas very frustrated.

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Other potential games of note:

• No. 3 Gonzaga and No. 14 Indiana could be lined up to meet in the semis of the Battle 4 Atlantis. No. 24 Arizona could also get a shot to move back up the rankings with a potential championship matchup against Gonzaga.
• No. 20 Texas A&M, if it can beat Oregon and No. 21 Creighton, could see the winner of Alabama-Houston on Saturday in the championship of the Player’s Era tourney. Houston smoked the Aggies in a preseason exhibition, but Texas A&M was playing without both Solomon Washington and leading scorer Zhuric Phelps.

(Photo: Joe Buglewicz / Getty Images)