Purdue still No. 1; UK climbs to 6th
Purdue remained atop the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll for the third straight week Monday, while Gonzaga dropped to No. 24 after a loss to San Diego State but kept alive its streak of 142 consecutive weeks in the poll.
The Boilermakers picked up three more first-place votes and had 49 of 63 from the national media panel, easily outdistancing second-place Kansas, which received five first-place nods. Houston remained third despite keeping its perfect record intact with a victory over Penn and picking up the other nine firstplace votes.
UConn and Tennessee each moved up one spot to round out the top five following Arizona’s loss to Stanford on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs fell 11 spots from No. 13 after their 84-74 loss to San Diego State. Gonzaga has been ranked in every poll since Jan. 11, 2016, but that streak is in jeopardy after coach Mark Few’s team dropped to 9-4 with no Quad 1 wins this season.
“These guys have some great fight and spirit and a lot of substance to them,” Few said, “but at this point, we should be pretty well along on our way on some of the mental errors we’re making, and we’re just not quite.”
The Bulldogs were 11th in the preseason poll and climbed as high as seventh before three losses in their past five games.
“We’ve got to keep that fight,” Few said, “and we have to clean up some of these missed assignments.”
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd knows something about missed defensive assignments. The Wildcats, who spent two weeks at No. 1 earlier this season, fell from fourth to 10th after the Cardinal rolled to a 100-82 victory in their Pac-12 matchup.
The Wildcats’ second loss in three games allowed a bunch of teams to jump ahead of them: Kentucky climbed two spots to sixth, Marquette moved up three spots to seventh, North