A crazy week in college basketball produced significant changes in the latest AP Top 25 poll released Monday with UCLA moving up to No. 5 and Xavier and Virginia entering the top 10. The Bruins moved up two spots from No. No. 7 last week after both Tennessee and UConn — ranked No. 4 and No. 5 last week — stumbled.
Meanwhile, UCLA handled home business against Utah and Colorado this week to keep its perfect Pac-12 record intact as its lead in the league standings held to one game.
The poll high remained the same as last week, with Houston retaining its spot at No. 1 and Kansas, Purdue and Alabama all retaining its spots at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4, respectively. The Cougars got the same number of first-place votes as last week (34) while Kansas received one more (23). Purdue received the final three.
Xavier’s rise of four places to No. 8 this week marked the program’s first top-10 placement since the 2017-18 season, when he climbed to No. 3 under then-coach Chris Mack. First-year coach Sean Miller led the Musketeers to a 15-3 overall record and a 7-0 mark in the Big East, which is his best league start since joining the league. Xavier’s hot start made such an impression that Marquette — who beat UConn earlier in the week and then lost to Xavier on Sunday — still climbed five places in the poll to 20th place.
Elsewhere in the standings, FAU entered the standings at No. 24, its first time in the AP poll in program history after a 16-1 start to the season. The Owls’ rise coincided with Duke dropping out of the standings for the first time since the 2020-21 season following their weekend loss to ACC leaders Clemson.
PA Top 25
The top 25 teams in the Associated Press college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, record through Sunday a point total based on 25 points for a first-place vote until Sunday. one point for a vote for 25th place and last week’s standings:
Others receiving votes: NC State 111, Saint Mary’s 106, Arizona St 79, New Mexico 67, Illinois 61, San Diego State 44, Michigan State 29, Duke 24, Wisconsin 14, Creighton 9, Kent State 8, Boise State 6, Texas A&M 5, Ohio State 3, Missouri 3, Iowa 2, VCU 2, North Carolina 1.
