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While Gonzaga and Baylor remain firmly atop the Associated Press’s men’s college basketball poll, Shaka Smart and fourth-place Texas are also pushing to the top spot.
The top-ranked Zags and Bears stayed 1-2 in Monday’s last Top 25 as they’ve been all season. But the Longhorns jumped four spots after an uneven weekend win at Kansas to claim the program’s top ranking under their sixth-year coach, as well as their first top-5 ranking since February 2011.
“If this is the top of January 2, that would be really, really disappointing,” said Smart after the 84-59 win over the Jayhawks. “That’s something we’re going to talk about a lot. I asked the guys in the locker room if that was kind of all they wanted. Obviously, it’s a rhetorical question: they want more. ” Texas (8-1) started the year in 19th place and hadn’t made it into the top 10 under Smart until this season. The Longhorns hadn’t been in the top five for three weeks at No.3, followed by a week at No.5 in February 2011 under former coach Rick Barnes.
THE HIGH LEVEL
Mark Few’s Bulldogs won 63 of 64 first-place votes in Monday’s poll, while Scott Drew’s Bears won the other vote. Gonzaga and Baylor have been leading 1-2 in all seven polls so far this season.
Villanova climbed one spot to No.3 on the same day the schedule announced a hiatus from the team’s activities due to coronavirus concerns.
Iowa, Kansas, Creighton, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Michigan rounded out the top 10, while No. 11 Houston and No. 14 West Virginia slipped from that group last week.
RISING
The Wolverines (9-0) made the biggest leap of the week, climbing six places after wins over then-No. Maryland. 19 Northwest. Michigan has now reached the top 10 in each of Juwan Howard’s two seasons as a coach, including last year’s rapid rise from unranked to No.4 after winning the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.
Iowa, 16th Minnesota and 19th Virginia Tech each climbed five places, while 17th Oregon joined Texas and Creighton in four places.
In all, 10 teams have climbed from last week’s standings.
SLIP
Florida state No.25 suffered the biggest drop of the week, dropping seven spots after losing to Clemson, then postponing its game against No.21 Duke due to coronavirus concerns within the Seminoles program.
Houston and No.23 Michigan State each dropped six spots, while No.18 Texas Tech joined West Virginia by slipping five spots.
The Kansas No.6 dropped three spots after the loss to Texas, bringing the total of teams that dropped last week’s standings to 11.
THE STATUS QUO
Gonzaga and Baylor were the only teams to hold onto their positions last week.
WELCOME
No 19 Clemson was back in the poll for the second time this season, equaling the Atlantic Coast Conference team Virginia Tech. The other new addition was Saint Louis, with the Billikens tying Michigan State for 23rd in making their first Top 25 AP appearance since the 2013-14 season.
Goodbye (for now)
Northwestern (No.19) and Ohio State (No.25) fell out of the ballot to make way for Clemson and Saint Louis.
CONFERENCE WATCH
The Big Ten continue to have the highest number of ranked teams, although the Big 12 has a strong performance in the top spot in the poll.
The Big Ten has seven ranked teams, including three in the top 10 with the 12th Illinois and 15th Rutgers. But the Big 12 has three of the top six teams in Baylor, Texas and Kansas, and five teams in total.
The ACC also has five teams, but again, it’s a late loaded group. The Tigers and Hokies are the top ranked of this quintet at No.19, followed by Duke, No.22 Virginia and No.25 FSU.
The Big East (Villanova and Creighton) and the Southeastern Conference (Tennessee and No. 13 Missouri) are the only other leagues with multiple ranked teams.
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