Purdue moved back to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll Monday ahead of Houston, which spent a single week there after leapfrogging the Boilermakers.
It’s hardly a two-team race for the top, though. UConn, Arizona and Duke also got No. 1 votes from the 61-member media panel in a poll that also saw No. 6 Louisville and No. 8 Illinois jump into the top 10.
The Boilermakers got 44 first-place votes after an impressive week that included a road win over then-No. 8 Alabama and a victory over Akron. Houston lost six of its No. 1 votes but still had 12 after beating Oakland and edging No. 22 Auburn in a matchup of Final Four teams from last season.
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UConn remained No. 3 with three first-place votes after beating then-No. 7 BYU 86-84 on Saturday. That started a tough road for the Huskies that includes games against No. 4 Arizona on Wednesday and Illinois and No. 24 Kansas down the road.
The Wildcats swapped spots with Duke this week, moving up with two first-place votes thanks in part to a win over then-No. 15 UCLA. The Blue Devils received the remaining No. 1 vote ahead of their game against the Jayhawks on Tuesday night.
Louisville tied for the biggest climb in the Top 25, moving up six spots after beating then-No. 9 Kentucky 96-88 last week. Michigan fell one spot to seventh, while Big Ten rival Illinois also moved up six spots. BYU dropped two spots after its loss to the Huskies, while defending national champion Florida rounded out the top 10.
The losses by Alabama and Kentucky cost each three spots in this week’s poll, pushing them into the second 10. Gonzaga was next, followed by St. John’s and Texas Tech, which dropped four spots following its loss to Illinois.
Speaking of the Illini, they have climbed nine spots from No. 17 in the preseason poll, the highest they’ve been since they were No. 6 in the final poll two seasons ago. Staying there will be a test. Illinois plays the Crimson Tide on Wednesday night, UConn in a couple of weeks, No. 20 Tennessee the first week of December, and then Ohio State, Nebraska and Missouri — all of them unbeaten so far this season — before Christmas rolls around.
“It’s the way you practice, the mental focus you have. Not reading all your guy’s stuff, and the fans and everything else,” Illini coach Brad Underwood said, when asked this week about how to keep early success in perspective. “I call it drinking the poison. And you can’t. You have to stay with what is vital and what is important.”
Rising and falling
The Illini joined Louisville and Gonzaga in making six-spot climbs this week, while the biggest falls came from Texas Tech as wel as UCLA, which dropped four spots after a closs loss to Arizona. N.C. State moved into the poll at No. 25 at the expense of Creighton.
Conference watch
The Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC led the way with six teams apiece in the Top 25, though the Big Ten and Big 12 also had three each in the top 10. The ACC was next with four ranked teams, the Big East had two and the West Coast Conference one.
Watch list
San Diego State was the top team outside the Top 25, followed by Indiana, which appeared on 18 ballots. Keep an eye on Georgetown, which appeared on six ballots and entered the week 4-0; the Hoyas have not been ranked since the final poll of the 2014-15 season.
Associated Press college basketball rankings – Nov. 17
Record Pts Prv 1. Purdue (44) 4-0 1502 2 2. Houston (12) 4-0 1457 1 3. UConn (2) 4-0 1389 3 4. Arizona (2) 4-0 1314 5 5. Duke (1) 4-0 1277 4 6. Louisville 4-0 1161 12 7. Michigan 3-0 1103 6 8. Illinois 4-0 1017 14 9. BYU 3-1 972 7 10. Florida 3-1 949 10 11. Alabama 2-1 928 8 12. Kentucky 3-1 798 9 13. Gonzaga 4-0 772 19 14. St. John’s 2-1 732 13 15. Texas Tech 3-1 678 11 16. Iowa St. 3-0 664 16 17. Michigan St. 3-0 585 17 18. North Carolina 4-0 516 18 19. UCLA 3-1 423 15 20. Tennessee 3-0 416 20 21. Arkansas 3-1 247 21 22. Auburn 3-1 188 22 23. Wisconsin 3-0 180 24 24. Kansas 3-1 132 25 25. NC State 3-0 97 –Others receiving votes: San Diego St. 71, Indiana 65, Vanderbilt 57, Oregon 28, Ohio St. 21, Southern Cal 16, Georgetown 16, Creighton 12, Baylor 11, Saint Mary’s 8, Missouri 7, Mississippi 5, Iowa 3, Utah St. 2, Georgia 2, Virginia 1, Virginia Tech 1, Stanford 1, Kansas St 1.
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