Huskies move up to No. 21 in rankings

The Uconn men’s basketball team moved up to No. 21 in the latest AP Top 25 rankings that were released Monday after a 2-0 week that featured road wins over Depaul and Georgetown.

Also on Monday, Huskies forward Alex Karaban was once again named Big East Freshman of the Week after his clutch shooting helped Uconn secure the win at Georgetown on Saturday. Karaban, the likely frontrunner for the Big East Freshman of the Year award, has received the weekly nod five times.

[ Calm, cool and consistent: All Uconn freshman Alex Karaban thinks about is the sport ]

Adama Sanogo made the conference’s weekly honor roll after averaging 20 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 66.7% from the field. The junior center helped lead the way with 25 points and nine rebounds at Depaul.

The Huskies (18-6, 7-6 Big East) had fallen from as high as No. 2 in the rankings to No. 24 in just five weeks thanks to a stretch of six losses in eight games. Now, having won three of the last four — though all three wins came against the bottom three teams in the conference — the Huskies have a chance to continue the turnaround on Tuesday when Big East leader Marquette comes to Hartford.

Marquette, 11-2 in Big East play and tied with Xavier atop the conference, leapt to No. 10 in the AP Poll this week. Xavier is now No. 13 after an overtime win over Providence and a 25-point dismantling of St. John’s — which beat Uconn by double digits at the XL Center Jan. 15.

The Friars dropped to No. 20 this week with after overtime loss to Xavier. Creighton, hanging around the “others receiving votes” category for the last several weeks, broke through at No. 23 thanks to a six-game winning streak. The Bluejays entered the season as one of two ranked teams in the conference alongside Villanova (Creighton was No. 9), but quickly dropped out of the Top 25 and had been out for the last eight weeks.

With five teams in the Top 25, the Big East conference has the second-most ranked programs behind the Big 12, which has six.

The Top 5 remained the same with the exception of Tennessee, which dropped to No. 6 after a loss to Texas. Despite a road loss to Indiana on Saturday, Purdue remains No. 1 and is followed by Houston, Alabama and Arizona — each of which moved up one spot. Texas is now No. 5.