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11/17 12:02 CST Purdue reclaims No. 1 from Houston in AP Top 25, Louisville and
Illinois jump into top 10
Purdue reclaims No. 1 from Houston in AP Top 25, Louisville and Illinois jump
into top 10
By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Basketball Writer
Purdue moved back to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll
Monday ahead of Houston, which spent a single week there after leapfrogging the
Boilermakers.
It's hardly a two-team race for the top, though. UConn, Arizona and Duke also
got No. 1 votes from the 61-member media panel in a poll that also saw No. 6
Louisville and No. 8 Illinois jump into the top 10.
The Boilermakers got 44 first-place votes after an impressive week that
included a road win over then-No. 8 Alabama and a victory over Akron. Houston
lost six of its No. 1 votes but still had 12 after beating Oakland and edging
No. 22 Auburn in a matchup of Final Four teams from last season.
"We have a great group of guys," said Purdue coach Matt Painter, who also
picked up his 500th career win last weekend, "and just trying to go from one
game to the other I think is really hard after you have such an emotional, big
win on the road like we had."
UConn remained No. 3 with three first-place votes after beating then-No. 7 BYU
86-84 on Saturday. That started a tough road for the Huskies that includes
games against No. 4 Arizona on Wednesday and Illinois and No. 24 Kansas down
the road.
The Wildcats swapped spots with Duke this week, moving up with two first-place
votes thanks in part to a win over then-No. 15 UCLA. The Blue Devils received
the remaining No. 1 vote ahead of their game against the Jayhawks on Tuesday
night.
Louisville tied for the biggest climb in the Top 25, moving up six spots after
beating then-No. 9 Kentucky 96-88 last week. Michigan fell one spot to seventh
while Big Ten rival Illinois also moved up six spots. BYU dropped two spots
after its loss to the Huskies, while defending national champion Florida
rounded out the top 10.
The losses by Alabama and Kentucky cost each three spots in this week's poll,
pushing them into the second 10. Gonzaga was next, followed by St. John's and
Texas Tech, which dropped four spots following its loss to Illinois.
Speaking of the Illini, they have climbed nine spots from No. 17 in the
preseason poll, the highest they've been since they were No. 6 in the final
poll two seasons ago. Staying there will be a test. Illinois plays plays the
Crimson Tide on Wednesday night, UConn in a couple of weeks, No. 20 Tennessee
the first week of December, and then Ohio State, Nebraska and Missouri --- all
of them unbeaten so far this season --- before Christmas rolls around.
"It's the way you practice, the mental focus you have. Not reading all your
guy's stuff, and the fans and everything else," Illini coach Brad Underwood
said, when asked this week about how to keep early success in perspective. "I
call it drinking the poison. And you can't. You have to stay with what is vital
and what is important."
Rising and falling The Illini joined Louisville and Gonzaga in making six-spot climbs this week, while the biggest falls came from Texas Tech as wel as UCLA, which dropped four spots after a closs loss to Arizona. N.C. State moved into the poll at No. 25 at the expense of Creighton. Conference watch The Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC led the way with six teams apiece in the Top 25, though the Big Ten and Big 12 also had three each in the top 10. The ACC was next with four ranked teams, the Big East had two and the West Coast Conference one. Watch list San Diego State was the top team outside the Top 25, followed by Indiana, which appeared on 18 ballots. Keep an eye on Georgetown, which appeared on six ballots and entered the week 4-0; the Hoyas have not been ranked since the final poll of the 2014-15 season. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball |
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