Auburn, Duke remains 1-2 on top of the latest AP Top 25 Men’s Voting

Auburn and Duke remain 1-2 at the top of the Associated Press Top 25 Men’s College Basketball Poll in the third week, while Maryland is back in the rankings for the first time in almost two years.

Bruce Pearl’s Tigers (20-1) held No. 1 ranking in the fourth week in a row in Monday’s vote and the third in a row as the unanimous election. Auburn has claimed 246 of 248 votes in first place over the past month while remaining undefeated in a robust southeast conference with nine ranked teams.

Auburn’s only loss came to Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils (19-2), who goes into the week with the country’s longest winning series of 15 games after rolling past rival North Carolina.

The two teams offered the only stability after 15 teams in last week’s AP Top 25 lost last week, with three of them losing twice.

The top level

Alabama moved up somewhere to No. 3, followed by Tennessee, who jumped four spots to No. 4 in a Sec-heavy upper level. Houston climbed a place to No. 5 despite an overtime loss for Nu-Nej. 13 Texas Tech to exit a 33-match home-woning row.

Florida was next at No. 6, followed by Purdue, Iowa State, Michigan State and Texas A&M to finish the top 10.

Rises

Texas Tech (17-4) had the biggest leap among last week’s ranked teams that rose nine spots to 13. After beating TCU at home and then beating Cougars despite coach Grant McCasland and forward JT Toppin was pushed early.

Two-time reigning national champion Uconn climbed six seats to No. 19 after winning at Marquette, while Missouri jumped five seats to No. 15 after beating Mississippi State.

In total, 10 teams moved up from their position last week. It included Rick Pitinos St. John’s team, which rose three seats to No. 12, the highest ranking for the program since the end of the 1999-2000 season at No. 9.

Sliding

Mississippi State had the biggest tumble of the week, which fell eight spots to No. 22 after home loss to Alabama and Missouri. Iowa State joined the Bulldogs in a two-loss week and fell five seats after losses to Arizona and Kansas State.

No. 16 Kansas and No. 23 Illinois also fell five spots and pushed the list of sliding teams to 10.

Welcome

No. 18 Maryland, No. 20 Arizona and No. 24 Michigan were the three new additions of the week.

Kevin Willards Terrapins (17-5) jumped into the vote at No. 18 after pushing his winning row to four matches, a stretch that includes winning in the then no. 17 Illinois and beat the then no. 17 Wisconsin at home last week.

That gave Maryland its first poll of almost two years, the last one came with a week at No. 21 at the end of February 2023.

Arizona (15-6) returned to the vote for the first time since November. Wildcats opened the year at No. 10 and peaked by ninth, but they are back after winning 11 out of 12-inclusive against Iowa State after Caleb Love hit half a Court shot to force overtime.

Michigan (16-5) has two former stints in the vote this season and peaked at No. 14 in early December.

Goodbye (for now)

Oregon was one of the three departures from this week’s vote that fell out of No. 16 after being one of the trio losing twice last week by falling in UCLA and at home to Nebraska. Louisville (No. 21) and Vanderbilt (No. 24) also fell out after loss to non -ranked enemies.

Conference watch

SEC had at least nine teams in the voting in the seventh week, including three weeks with 10 teams to make up 40% of the vote. SEC has also had at least half of the top 10 eight times in nine weeks and topped at six teams on January 6th. No other league has had more than six ranked teams for any week this season.

Maryland’s arrival pushed the big ten to six ranked teams, followed by the Big 12 with five and Big East with three. The Atlantic coast and American athletic conferences each had one.