Defending national champion UConn, Purdue and North Carolina remained atop The Associated Press men's college basketball Top 25 poll for the third straight week, while South Carolina moved up the rankings for the first time in nearly seven years. .
The Huskies earned 45 of 61 first-place votes to remain at No. 1 for the fourth consecutive week in Monday's poll, while the Boilermakers topped the ballots of the other 16 voters.
The top of the poll remained steady after a big week that included four top-10 matchups over the weekend, with Purdue winning at Wisconsin and UNC beating rival Duke.
The week also included Kansas beating Houston, moving the Jayhawks up four spots to No. 4 and dropping the Cougars one spot to No. 5.
Tennessee dropped one spot to No. 6 after losing at home to the now No. 15 Gamecocks, but then with a win at Kentucky in the other top-10 fight of the weekend. The Wildcats fell seven spots to No. 17 after losses to the Vols and Florida.
Marquette, Arizona, Duke and Illinois rounded out the top 10, with the Wildcats and Fighting Illini returning after stints earlier this season.
IN AND OUT
South Carolina is making its first appearance in the poll since February 2017, a season in which the Gamecocks made a surprise run to the Final Four. Lamont Paris' team has won five straight, and its 19 wins have already surpassed its season record in any year since that streak.
The Gamecocks joined No. 24 San Diego State as the additions of the week, replacing Oklahoma (No. 23) and TCU (No. 25).
ASCENDING AND SLIDING
Alabama had the biggest jump of the week, moving up eight spots to No. 16 after jumping to the top of the Southeastern Conference standings at 8-1. No. 13 Baylor was next, moving up five spots after a home win against No. 14 Iowa State.
In total, nine teams advanced from last week's poll.
Texas Tech had the biggest drop of the week, eight spots to No. 23 after a loss at TCU and a home loss to Cincinnati. No. 19 Creighton and No. 25 New Mexico also had long declines, each falling six spots.
In total, 10 teams fell from their position last week.
STATUS QUO
No. 20 Florida Atlantic joined the UConn-Purdue-UNC trio as the only teams to remain in the same position as in the previous poll.
CONFERENCE MONITORING
The Big 12 led the country with six qualified teams, followed by the SEC with five. The Big Ten, Big East and Mountain West conferences were next with three. The Atlantic Coast Conference had two, while the Pac-12, Atlantic 10 and American Athletic conferences had one each.
