Top 25: Spartans tumble to No. 14; Gonzaga returns to No. 1 position
A wild week of upsets led to big changes in the AP Top 25. Amid the chaos, a familiar team returned to the top.
Preseason No. 1 Gonzaga climbed back atop The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll on Monday, ending Baylor’s five-week run. The Bulldogs had 25 first-place votes, 11 fewer than No. 2 Auburn, but edged the Tigers in overall points to take the top spot.
Auburn has its highest ranking since reaching No. 2 in 1999-2000 after moving up two spots. Arizona, Purdue and Baylor rounded out the top five.
Michigan State fell from No. 10 to No. 14 after a loss to unranked Northwestern.
Gonzaga (14-2, 3-0 West Coast) continued its roll since losing to Alabama on Dec. 4, stretching its winning streak to seven games with blowouts over BYU and Santa Clara last week.
The rest of the AP Top 25 didn’t fare quite as well, with 13 teams losing, including nine on Saturday. Eight teams fell to unranked opponents.
Baylor’s tenure at the top ended with losses to No. 18 Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. It was the first time the Bears lost consecutive home games in nearly six years and ended the reigning national champions’ winning streak
at 21 games.
No. 16 Southern California also saw its undefeated season come to a crashing end with losses to Stanford and Oregon sandwiched around a win over Oregon State. Seton Hall dropped out of the poll from No. 20 after losing to Depaul and Marquette.
UCLA climbed to No. 3 in last week’s poll and dropped six spots this week after losing 84-81 to Oregon in overtime. The win was the 700th of Ducks coach Dana Altman’s career and dropped UCLA six spots to No. 9 in this week’s poll.
Arizona wasn’t expected to be among the Pac-12’s elite in its first season under coach Tommy Lloyd, picked
to finish tied for fourth in the preseason poll.
The Wildcats (14-1, 4-0 Pac-12) have surpassed those expectations and put themselves among the nation’s top teams with a free-flowing offense that can beat teams in multiple ways.
The nation’s highestscoring team shot 51% and had 20 assists on 29 field goals in a 76-55 win over Colorado last Thursday. The Wildcats then overpowered Utah inside, outscoring the Utes 56-28 in the paint during an 82-64 win on Saturday.
Arizona climbed three spots in this week’s poll to No. 3, its highest ranking since reaching No. 2 in 2017-18. No. 17 Illinois had the week’s biggest climb, moving up eight spots after beating Nebraska and Michigan.