Nick KrugBaylor is the unanimous No. 1 in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll once again, while fifth-ranked Southern California climbed to its highest ranking in nearly five decades.
Kansas, meanwhile, dropped three spots to No. 9 in the latest AP poll released Monday.
The reigning national champion Bears earned all 61 first-place votes in Monday’s poll for the fourth time in five weeks. Baylor (15-0) beat Oklahoma and TCU last week to push its winning streak to 21 games dating to last year’s title run in the Indianapolis bubble.
Gonzaga, UCLA, Auburn and USC rounded out the top five. The Tigers jumped five spots to No. 4, while the Trojans climbed two spots to hit their highest ranking since last reaching No. 5 in December 1974.
Arizona, Purdue, Duke, Kansas and Michigan State rounded out a reshuffled group of the same top-10 teams from last week.
Joining KU and Baylor in this week’s poll from the Big 12 are: No. 15 Iowa State; No. 19 Texas Tech, which moved up six spots after knocking off Kansas; and No. 21 Texas, which dropped seven spots after a road loss to Oklahoma State over the weekend.
Oklahoma and West Virginia are among those programs receiving votes.
No. 13 Wisconsin had the biggest jump of the 12 teams that climbed in this week’s poll, leaping 10 spots after beating Purdue, Iowa and Maryland in Big Ten play. No. 12 LSU rose nine spots after wins against ranked Kentucky and Tennessee teams.
No. 24 Alabama had the biggest tumble of the 10 teams that fell in Monday’s poll, sliding nine spots after losing to a Missouri team that was 6-7 entering the game. No. 21 Texas and No. 23 Providence each fell seven spots.
Illinois re-entered the poll at No. 25 after opening the year at No. 11 but falling out before the end of November. That came after the AP Top 25 featured no new teams for each of the past two weeks.
No. 9 Kansas returns to action at 7 p.m. Tuesday, when it will play host to No. 15 Iowa State, which has lost two of its last three games (home vs. Baylor and at Oklahoma) after opening the season 12-0 and climbing into the top 10.
Here’s a look at this week’s complete poll:
1 – Baylor, 15-0, 1,525 (61)
2 – Gonzaga, 12-2, 1,440
3 – UCLA, 10-1, 1,376
4 – Auburn, 14-1, 1,193
5 – USC, 13-0, 1,152
6 – Arizona, 12-1, 1,144
7 – Purdue, 13-2, 1,139
8 – Duke, 12-2, 1,130
9 – Kansas, 12-2, 1,031
10 – Michigan State, 13-2, 1,011
11 – Houston, 14-2, 949
12 – LSU, 14-1, 889
13 – Wisconsin, 13-2, 784
14 – Villanova, 11-4, 682
15 – Iowa State, 13-2, 648
16 – Ohio State, 10-3, 510
17 – Xavier, 12-2, 453
18 – Kentucky, 12-3, 438
19 – Texas Tech, 11-3, 373
20 – Seton Hall, 11-3, 342
21 – Texas, 12-3, 282
22 – Tennessee, 10-4, 277
23 – Providence, 14-2, 250
24 – Alabama, 11-4, 237
25 – Illinois, 11-3, 208
Others receiving votes: Oklahoma 122, Loyola Chicago 96, Miami (FL) 65, West Virginia 20, Connecticut 17, Indiana 12, Colorado State 10, San Diego State 9, Davidson 5, BYU 2, Iowa 2, San Francisco 2
