Rutgers drops one spot in Top 25 poll

While Gonzaga and Baylor remain firmly atop The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, Shaka Smart and fourth-ranked Texas are making a push into the rankings’ top tier, too.

The top-ranked Zags and second-ranked Bears remained 1-2 in Monday’s latest Top 25 as they have all season. But the Longhorns jumped four spots after a lopsided weekend win at Kansas to earn the program’s highest ranking under their sixth-year coach, as well as its first top-5 ranking since February 2011.

“If this is the peak on Jan. 2, that would be really, really disappointing,” Smart said after the 84-59 win against the Jayhawks. “It’s something that we’ll talk a lot about. I asked the guys in the locker room if this was kind of all they wanted. Obviously that’s a rhetorical question: They want more.”

Texas (8-1) started the year at No. 19 and hadn’t cracked the top 10 under Smart before this season. The Longhorns hadn’t cracked the top five since spending three weeks at No. 3 followed by a week at No. 5 in February 2011 under former coach Rick Barnes.

Mark Few’s Bulldogs earned 63 of 64 first-place votes in Monday’s poll, while Scott Drew’s Bears received the other vote. Gonzaga and Baylor have been 1-2 in all seven polls so far this season.

Villanova climbed one spot to No. 3 on the same day the program announced a pause in team activities, including having three games postponed through Jan. 13, due to coronavirus issues.

Iowa, Kansas, Creighton, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Michigan rounded out the top 10, while No. 11 Houston and No. 14 West Virginia slid out from that group from last week.

The Big Ten continues to have the biggest haul of ranked teams, though the Big 12 has a strong showing in the poll’s top tier.

The Big Ten has seven ranked teams, including three in the top 10 along with No. 12 Illinois and No. 15 Rutgers. But the Big 12 has three of the top six teams in Baylor, Texas and Kansas and five teams overall.