Duke’s win against Michigan has propelled the Blue Devils to a familiar perch: No. 1 in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll.
The Blue Devils climbed two spots to top Monday’s poll, marking the 148th appearance at No. 1 to add to what was already the record for any program. Duke (25-2) claimed 56 of 61 first-place votes to supplant Michigan (25-2) after Saturday’s 68-63 win against the Wolverines in Washington.
Advertisement
That win came in a matchup of the top two teams in the NCAA men’s selection committee’s preliminary top 16 seeds for March Madness, released hours before the game. The Blue Devils enter this week with a national-best 12 Quadrant 1 wins, along with nine wins against AP Top 25 teams.
And now the latest such win has pushed the Blue Devils back to a No. 1 ranking for the second straight season under fourth-year coach Jon Scheyer. Last year’s Final Four team sat atop the last two polls entering the NCAA Tournament, the first time Duke had reached No. 1 since Scheyer took over for retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski in 2022.
Arizona rose two spots to No. 2 after beating BYU and winning at Houston, and secured the other five first-place votes. Michigan fell to No. 3 as its first appearance at No. 1 since January 2013 turned into a one-week stay, followed by a pair of Big 12 teams in Iowa State and Houston.
The top tier
UConn fell one spot to No. 6 after a week that included a home loss to Creighton, while reigning national champion Florida leapt five spots to No. 7 to return to the top 10 for the first time since late November. The Gators were ranked No. 3 in the preseason and spent a week among the unranked in early January. They have won seven straight and 12 of 13.
Advertisement
Purdue, Gonzaga and Illinois rounded out the top 10.
NCAA selection committee vs. AP Top 25
The selection committee had Michigan, Duke, Arizona and Iowa State as the No. 1 seeds in Saturday’s reveal of the preliminary top 16 seeds. The Cyclones edged UConn and Houston for the fourth 1-seed, with the Huskies’ loss to Creighton and then Iowa State’s head-to-head win against Houston to start last week swinging the vote to T.J. Otzelberger’s squad.
Monday’s poll largely aligns with the committee’s reveal, starting with the same four teams at the top in a shuffled order — with Iowa State moving up two spots even after Saturday’s loss at now-No. 19 BYU.
Advertisement
In addition, the AP Top 25 and committee align on 15 teams being ranked among those top 16 seeds. The outlier is St. John’s at No. 15 in the AP poll, taking a slot that went to Vanderbilt — with the Commodores seeded 15th overall by the committee Saturday but sliding to No. 25 in Monday’s poll.
Rising
Alabama had the week’s biggest jump, rising eight spots to No. 17 after a thrilling double-overtime home win against Arkansas and a win at LSU pushed the Crimson Tide’s win streak to six games.
Florida had the week’s second-biggest gain, while BYU rose four spots after the Arizona loss and Iowa State win.
Advertisement
In all, 11 teams moved up from last week’s ranking.
Sliding
No. 14 Kansas joined Vanderbilt with the week’s biggest slide of six spots. The Jayhawks are coming off a 16-point home loss to a Cincinnati team that was reeling in early February but has won four straight.
The Commodores lost at Missouri and at home to Tennessee last week, falling to 5-6 since a 16-0 start that carried them to a No. 10 ranking as of mid-January.
Saint Louis tumbled five spots to No. 23 after last week’s loss at Rhode Island ended an 18-game winning streak, while 11 teams fell from last week but remained in the poll.
Advertisement
Status quo
Illinois and No. 20 Arkansas were the only two teams to hold their position from last week.
Coming and going
Tennessee was the lone new addition at No. 22, with the Volunteers beating Oklahoma and Vanderbilt last week to push its winning streak to four games. This starts a third stint in the poll for Rick Barnes’ Volunteers, who fell out for two weeks in mid-January, returned for a week at No. 25 to start February, then were unranked again for the past two weeks.
The Vols replaced Wisconsin, which fell out from No. 24 after last week’s loss at Ohio State.
Conference watch
The Big 12 led all conferences with six ranked teams, while the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference each had five. The Atlantic Coast Conference was next with four, followed by the Big East with two.
Advertisement
The West Coast Conference, Mid-American Conference and Atlantic 10 each had one ranked team.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Read the full article here
