Connecticut has followed up last year's run to the NCAA championship with its first No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press men's college basketball poll in nearly 15 years, while Gonzaga has fallen out of the AP Top 25 for the first time in eight years.
The Huskies moved to the top of Monday's latest poll after a tumultuous week filled with unrest across the sport, which included five new teams jumping into the poll. UConn earned 39 of 63 first-place votes to move up three spots and replace Purdue at the top after the Boilermakers' loss at Nebraska dropped them to the No. 2 spot.
This is the first time UConn has reached the No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 since spending four weeks there in the second half of the 2008-09 season, which ended with the Huskies reaching the Final Four.
“Some people don't want the goal,” coach Dan Hurley said last week of the potential to reach the No. 1 spot. “I think we embrace the goal at UConn.”
Purdue earned 20 first-place votes, followed by Kansas, the only team in the poll to remain in place from last week, with three first-place votes despite a loss at UCF.
There was also North Carolina's three-spot jump to No. 4 after beating rival North Carolina State for its third Atlantic Coast Conference road win in as many tries and defeating Syracuse at home. UNC even got a first-place vote.
Gonzaga fell from 23rd place after a loss at Santa Clara, marking the first time Mark Few's club has not been ranked since the final two months of the 2015-16 season.
That ended a stretch of 143 consecutive weeks in the poll, with 39 of them at No. 1, particularly with that run from start to finish in the 2020-21 season that ended with Gonzaga suffering its only title loss. of the NCAA. I play Baylor.
Last week turned into a trap-filled slate for AP's top 25 teams. Eight of the top 10 teams lost at least once, and No. 5 Houston lost two games by a combined five points in its first setbacks of the year.
But with 15 ranked teams losing last week, that kept some teams from falling as far and everyone around them from stumbling as well. That ultimately meant the Cougars fell just three spots to No. 5, while Purdue, No. 6 Tennessee and No. 8 Kentucky fell just one or two spots after their own losses to unranked teams.
Duke moved up four spots to No. 7 to return to the top 10 after starting the year at No. 2, followed by the Wildcats, No. 9 Baylor and No. 10 Memphis.
Ten teams advanced in this week's poll, and the Bears' five-spot jump marked the biggest of the week. No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 16 Utah State and No. 18 Creighton joined the Blue Devils with four-point jumpers.
Oklahoma and Marquette had the biggest drop of the week, each dropping six spots. The 15th-ranked Sooners fell after road losses to TCU and Kansas, while the 17th-ranked Golden Eagles lost at home to Butler.
No. 12 Arizona and No. 14 Illinois each fell four spots, while a total of nine teams fell in last week's poll.
No. 19 TCU made the biggest debut to lead the week's five poll newcomers after wins against Oklahoma and Houston.
No. 21 Dayton, No. 22 Mississippi, No. 24 Iowa State and No. 25 Texas Tech were the other additions, and all but the Rebels were making their first appearance this season.
Colorado State (No. 17), San Diego State (No. 19), Clemson (No. 21) and Texas (No. 25) joined the Zags in falling out of the poll.
The Big 12 accounted for nearly a third of this Top 25 with eight top teams nationally.
The SEC was next with four teams, followed by the Big Ten and Big East with three, the Atlantic Coast and American Athletic conferences with two, and one each for the Pac-12, Atlantic-10 and Mountain West.
