UConn is No. 1 in first post-tourney poll

UConn finished atop the first Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll to be released after March Madness following its run to the first back-to-back national championship in 17 years.

The Huskies (37-3) topped all 58 ballots Tuesday, coming roughly 12 hours after they beat Purdue 75-60 in the title game. That win allowed UConn to become the first men’s repeat champion since Florida in 2006 and 2007, as well as joining the Gators and Duke (1991 and 1992) as the only back-toback champs since UCLA won seven straight titles under John Wooden from 1967-73.

“I just think it’s the best two-year run I think in a very, very long time just because of everything we lost from last year’s team,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said after the win.

The Boilermakers (34-5) were next at No. 2 as they nearly matched Virginia in 2019 with an incredible turnaround. The Cavaliers became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed in UMBC in 2018 before winning the title the next year. Purdue has the only other 16-vs-1 upset loss, to Fairleigh Dickinson last year, but followed that by coming within a win of the title, too.

Houston and Alabama — which reached its first Final Four — were next in a tie for No. 3, followed by Tennessee at No. 5.

UConn ultimately spent eight weeks at No. 1 this season, while its lowest ranking was sixth in the preseason poll.

The Huskies spent six straight weeks from mid-January into late February at No. 1, fell to No. 3 on Feb. 26 after a loss at Creighton, then had two weeks at No. 2 before returning to No. 1 for the final pre-tournament poll on March 18.

Purdue had been within range of the Huskies all season in what became largely a clear top tier. The Boilermakers, led by a two-time AP national player of the year in 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, spent five weeks at No. 1, nine weeks at No. 2 and was never ranked lower than fourth.

Once in the tournament, the Huskies won six tournament games by a combined 23.3 points, with the closest call being a 14-point win against the Crimson Tide in the national semifinals. Ultimately, UConn and Purdue ranked 1-2 six times this season.