Purdue reclaimed the No. 1 spot from Houston in the Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll released on Monday.
The Boilermakers (4-0) received 44 of 61 first-place ballots on the strength of an 87-80 road win over then-No. 8 Alabama (2-1), who dropped to the No. 11 spot.
The Cougars didn’t fall far, dropping just to No. 2 with 12 first-place ballots after topping Oakland by 33 points and squeaking past No. 22 Auburn (3-1) by just one point.
Other first-place votes went to UConn (4-0, two first-place votes), who stayed at No. 3, while Arizona (4-0, two first-place votes) moved up a spot to bump Duke (4-0) back to No. 5 with one first-place vote.
Louisville (4-0) and Illinois (4-0) broke into the top 10 by jumping six spots each. The Cardinals landed at No. 6 after beating Ohio by 25 points and winning against then No. 9 Kentucky, who dropped to No. 12. Illinois takes the No. 8 spot with wins over Colgate and then-No. 11 Texas Tech (3-1), who dropped to No. 15. Gonzaga (4-0) also jumped six spots to No. 13.
Michigan (3-0) fell one spot to No. 7 and BYU (3-1) dropped two spots to No. 9, while Florida stayed steady in the No. 10 spot.
Creighton fell out of the poll, bringing NC State (3-0) onto the list at No. 25 after a 110-64 dominance of UNC-Greensboro.
The rest of the Top 25:
11. Alabama (2-1)
12. Kentucky (3-1)
13. Gonzaga (4-0)
14. St. John’s (2-1)
15. Texas Tech (3-1)
16. Iowa State (3-0)
17. Michigan State (3-0)
18. North Carolina (4-0)
19. UCLA (3-1)
20. Tennessee (3-0)
21. Arkansas (3-1)
22. Auburn (3-1)
23. Wisconsin (3-0)
24. Kansas (3-1)
25. NC State (3-0)
–Field Level Media
