Auburn retained its spot at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll Monday for a sixth consecutive week after a road win Saturday over No. 2 Alabama. The Tigers, whose unanimous standing at No. 1 ended last week after a three-poll stint, earned all but one first-place vote to near unanimous status once again, with Florida earning the final first-place vote.
The Gators rose to No. 2, their highest mark in the AP poll since 2014, after beating No. 1 Auburn a week ago and beating Mississippi State and South Carolina this week. Meanwhile last week’s No. 2, Alabama, fell two spots to No. 4 after a 94-85 home loss to Auburn.
That was part of a theme once again this week with the SEC dominating the top 25 as it has done much of the season. The league has a nation-leading nine teams in this week’s poll led by three of the top four, five of this week’s top 10 and the No. 1 team in Auburn. The Big 12 and Big Ten each had five ranked teams in this week’s poll with the Big 12 holding three in the top 10.
Sandwiched between the Gators and the Tide is Duke, both of whom are responsible for the only two losses by No. 1 Auburn this season. The Gators and Blue Devils tied for the No. 3 spot last week but now hold the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively, alone.
Duke’s ranking extends a streak of 11 weeks and counting for it in the top five of the poll after a perfect week in which it beat Cal and Stanford after losing last Saturday at Clemson. It is 22-3 on the season and 14-1 in ACC play.
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Sunday, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:
Also receiving votes: New Mexico 117, Saint Mary’s 63, UCLA 56, Creighton 27, Illinois 22, UConn 20, George Mason 15, Gonzaga 14, High Point 1.
After a two-week stint in the rankings in January, Louisville spent the last two weeks as an unranked team before once again returning Monday at No. 25. The Cardinals (20-6, 13-2 ACC) have won four consecutive games after a road loss at Georgia Tech and 14 of their last 15 games dating back to before Christmas. They are one game off the ACC lead of Duke with five regular season games remaining.
Fifty-nine of 60 first-place votes cast this week went to Auburn after voters cast first-place votes for four different teams last week. It pushes the Tigers, who were the unanimous No. 1 for three consecutive weeks before last week’s poll, closer to re-gaining unanimous status in the poll once again. They are projected to be favored in each of their six remaining games, per KenPom.com.
Big Ten teams had a major reshuffling this week with Michigan moving up eight spots, Wisconsin rocketing up five spots and Purdue falling out of the top 10 down to No. 13. The Wolverines were the biggest riser not just of the league, but of all teams, moving up from No. 20 last week. They defeated both Purdue and Ohio State this week to improve to 12-2 overall in league play, putting them alone in first place in the conference race.
