Gonzaga, Baylor, Iowa remain in top three of Top 25

Gonzaga and Baylor headlined an unchanged top tier of The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, even as both have been sidelined by coronavirus issues.

The top five teams remained in place in Monday’s latest Top 25, with Mark Few’s Bulldogs receiving 54 of 62 first-place votes to remain No. 1. The secondranked Bears had seven first-place votes to remain 1-2 with Gonzaga in each of the season’s four polls.

The Zags haven’t played since beating West Virginia Dec. 2 due to COVID-19 protocols, with five straight games postponed, including a matchup with Baylor Dec.

5. The Bears announced Saturday they would pause team activities.

Gonzaga had previously said it would pause competition through Monday and is next scheduled to face No.

3 Iowa in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Saturday. Baylor is scheduled to visit Kansas State that day.

The Hawkeyes received the remaining first-place vote to finish ahead of No. 4 Michigan State and No. 5 Kansas. Houston, Villanova, West Virginia, Creighton and Tennessee rounded out the top 10, with the Mountaineers rising three spots and the Volunteers climbing two.

No. 18 San Diego State had the biggest jump, climbing six spots after beating then-No. 23 Arizona State. No. 15 Florida State jumped five spots, while No. 14 Texas Tech matched West Virginia’s rise of three spots.

Illinois and Duke had the two most notable slides.

The No. 13 Illini dropped seven spots after losing to Missouri. The No. 21 Blue Devils took the week’s longest tumble by falling 11 spots after losing to Illinois.

No. 22 North Carolina fell six spots after losing a high-scoring game at Iowa in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, while Creighton slid one spot as the only other team to fall this week.

Missouri cracked the poll at No. 16 after beating Illinois, the program’s first

AP ranking since midway through the 2013-14 season. No. 24 Clemson and No. 25 Michigan were the week’s other additions

RUTGERS 74, MARYLAND 60 » Ron Harper Jr. scored 19 of his 27 points in the second half, and No. 19 Rutgers won its Big Ten opener for the first time in school history.

The Scarlet Knights (50, 1-0) broke open a tight game with a 10-0 run that made it 50-38 with 11:49 left. Myles Johnson started and ended the spree with dunks, and Harper contributed a 3-pointer.

After Donta Scott stemmed the surge with a long-range ju mp er, Harper connected from behind the arc and Jacob Young scored in the lane to give the Scarlet Knights a 14-point cushion. This is the first time since 1934-35 that Rutgers has opened with five straight doubledigit victories.

Scott scored 20 and Eric Ayala added 12 for Maryland (4-2, 0-1), which finished in a tie atop the conference last season.