It is Arizona’s flip to sit down atop The Associated Press Top 25 males’s school basketball ballot.
The Wildcats rose to No. 1 in Monday’s ballot for the primary time in almost 9 years, making Tommy Lloyd’s squad the third crew to carry the highest spot this season. Last week’s No. 1 crew, Purdue, slid after an time beyond regulation loss at Northwestern.
Arizona claimed 59 of 63 first-place votes to maneuver up one spot, placing the Wildcats comfortably forward of preseason No. 1 Kansas. The Jayhawks rose three spots to No. 2 with a win in opposition to final season’s NCAA champion, Connecticut.
Arizona hasn’t been No. 1 within the AP Top 25 since an eight-week stint that resulted in January 2014 below former coach Sean Miller. Lloyd is in his third season after a long term as an assistant at Gonzaga, and his first two groups every spent a number of weeks inside the highest 5.
“I know when I came to this program, my dream is to make it one of the best in the country,” Lloyd mentioned of the attainable rise to No. 1 after a weekend win in opposition to Colgate. “If you’re one of the best in the country, you’re going to stumble into being No. 1 once in a while. So you know what? Handle it. And that’ll be the message.”
It was a busy day for the ballot: No crew within the Top 25 was in the identical spot it was every week in the past.
Houston rose three spots to No. 3, whereas the Boilermakers fell to fourth after the Northwestern loss. UConn slid just one spot to No. 5 after the loss at Kansas, adopted by Baylor.
Gonzaga and North Carolina cracked the highest 10 for the primary time this season.
The Bulldogs jumped 4 spots to No. 7 after a neutral-court win in opposition to USC. The Tar Heels jumped eight spots to No. 9 after beating Tennessee within the ACC/SEC Challenge, adopted by a house comeback win in opposition to Florida State.
The NCAA’s preliminary NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings had been launched Monday and differed fairly a bit from the AP ballot.
Houston was No. 1 within the NET rankings, adopted by BYU, Arizona, Creighton and Purdue. Kansas was sixteenth within the NET.
The NET is the first sorting software for figuring out NCAA Tournament groups.
The Tar Heels’ leap marked the week’s greatest bounce, although No. 13 Colorado State was proper behind them after rising seven spots on the power of its 8-0 begin. There was additionally a six-spot rise for No. 19 Oklahoma, which made its ballot debut final week.
In all, 14 groups climbed from final week’s ballot, together with No. 10 Creighton rising 5 spots to rejoin the highest 10 after spending the primary three polls at No. 8.
Duke took the largest tumble of the week of 15 spots to land at No. 22 after a pair of highway losses in opposition to unranked opponents. First got here a loss at Arkansas then a loss at Georgia Tech after start line guard Tyrese Proctor went down with an early ankle damage.
No. 15 Miami, No. 17 Tennessee and No. 21 Texas A&M every fell seven spots.
Three groups joined this week’s rankings.
Wisconsin jumped in at No. 23 after beating then-No. 3 Marquette at dwelling, pushing the Badgers to 5 straight wins. Clemson adopted at No. 24 amid a 7-0 begin, whereas San Diego State is again within the ballot at No. 25 for the primary time since sitting at No. 17 within the preseason.
Villanova (No. 18), Mississippi State (No. 21) Alabama (No. 23) fell out of the ballot.
The Big 12 led all conferences with six ranked groups, together with No. 12 Texas and No. 14 BYU.
The ACC was subsequent with 4 groups, adopted by the Big Ten, Big East and Southeastern conferences with three every. The Mountain West Conference had two ranked groups, whereas the Pac-12, American Athletic, Sun Belt and West Coast every had one.
