Baylor remains unanimous No. 1 in men’s AP Top 25; USC hits No. 5

Reigning national champion Baylor isn’t showing any sign of loosening its grip on No. 1.

The Bears remained the unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press men’s college basketball poll for the fourth time in five weeks. That came after 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.

That streak is the third longest in the Big 12’s 26-year history, trailing Baylor’s 23-game run in 2019-20 and Kansas’ 22-game stretch in 1996-97. The Bears enter this week as the only team in the top 10 of KenPom’s adjusted efficiency rankings for both offense (120.6 points per 100 possessions) and defense (89.6).

They trailed by nine early in the second half of Saturday’s win at TCU, but ended up winning by double figures for the 12th time this year.

So far, it’s been good enough to stay in place at the top. No. 2 Gonzaga and No. 3 UCLA each climbed two spots after losses by Duke and Purdue, while Auburn and Southern California were new additions to the top five.

For the Tigers, they jumped five spots after beating South Carolina and Florida to push their winning streak to 11 games. Then there were the Trojans, who climbed two spots to their highest ranking since last reaching No. 5 in December 1974 after beating California on Thursday.

USC (13-0) joins Baylor as the last two unbeaten teams in Division I men’s basketball.

Arizona, Purdue, Duke, Kansas and Michigan State rounded out a reshu±ed group of the same top-10 teams from last week.