Arizona continues to win. And it continues to maintain a firm hold on the No. 1 ranking.
The 22-0 Wildcats were a unanimous pick for the top spot in Monday’s Associated Press Top 25 poll after defeating No. 16 BYU and rival Arizona State last week. Arizona is off to its best start in school history, and the Wildcats are in line to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in five seasons under coach Tommy Lloyd. The big question is whether the Wildcats can reach the Final Four for the first time in 25 years.
Behind Arizona, the top five endured a shakeup: Michigan (20-1) rose one spot to No. 2 after beating No. 9 Nebraska and No. 10 Michigan State, while No. 3 UConn (21-1) dropped a spot despite not losing this week. Duke (20-1) held steady at No. 4, and Illinois (19-3) shot up four spots to No. 5 after defeating No. 12 Purdue and Nebraska. It’s the highest ranking for the Illini since 2021.
Other notable movement:
The aforementioned Cornhuskers (20-2) fell four spots after losing their first two games of the season.
Aside from Illinois, No. 11 Kansas (16-5), No. 15 Vanderbilt (19-3) and No. 22 St. John’s (16-5) were the biggest climbers, each moving up three spots.
No. 21 Arkansas (16-6) took the biggest tumble, dropping six places after losing at home against Kentucky.
Alabama (14-7) fell out of the Top 25, with No. 25 Tennessee (15-6) taking its place.
Here’s the full poll, along with the ballot of The Athletic’s C.J. Moore:
1
22-0
1
1
2
20-1
3
2
3
21-1
2
3
4
20-1
4
4
5
19-3
9
5
6
22-1
6
9
7
20-2
8
8
8
19-2
10
6
9
20-2
5
7
10
19-3
7
10
11
16-5
14
13
12
18-4
12
11
13
16-5
11
15
14
17-4
16
19
15
19-3
18
12
16
17-4
13
16
17
16-6
19
14
18
18-3
17
17
19
21-1
21
18
20
18-4
22
22
21
16-6
15
21
22
16-5
25
24
23
22-0
24
NR
24
15-6
20
25
25
15-6
NR
20
NR
14-7
23
23
Others receiving votes: Texas A&M 83, Alabama 48, Iowa 39, UCF 39, Kentucky 28, Villanova 15, NC State 9, Auburn 8, Utah State 6, Miami 4, Georgia 3, Santa Clara 1, George Mason 1, Wisconsin 1.
Duke is getting better
I’m at consensus with Duke for the first time all season, and I’m coming around on this team. Jon Scheyer probably isn’t going to get any National Coach of the Year consideration because Duke was expected to be good, and we almost hold it against coaches who can recruit at a high level when it comes to these awards, but he has done an awesome job figuring out how to make his offense elite and get his team playing together and defending at a high level. He has the talent, but that can be a challenge with such a young roster.
The Blue Devils’ numbers are too good for me to rank them any lower than No. 4, and you could justify putting them above UConn, which is ranked 10th by statistical ratings systems such as KenPom and BPI. I prefer UConn’s resume — four wins over teams in my top 16, compared to three for Duke — but I’ll take the loss on doubting Duke. The Blue Devils are cruising through the ACC and have made that take look bad.
Not panicking on Purdue
I’m slightly above consensus on Purdue, which I have at No. 11 this week. The Boilermakers did lose three straight, but the season-long resume is solid. Looking at the resume and quality rankings that the NCAA Tournament selection committee considers, their lowest rank is 12th at strength of record, and they’re between No. 6 and No. 9 in every other ranking system. Two of Purdue’s three recent losses were on the road (UCLA and Indiana) and the other was against a team I ranked fifth (Illinois). All three were close games.
Purdue’s other loss is at home to No. 7 Iowa State. You could even argue that Purdue should be above Michigan State, but the quality of losses (Duke, Nebraska and Michigan for Michigan State) was the separator for me. Below Purdue, I’d listen to an argument for Florida, which has better predictive numbers (up to No. 6 at both Bart Torvik and Evan Miya), but that’s it.
Miami (Ohio)’s metrics lag behind ranking
Utah State, Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara, New Mexico, San Diego State, VCU, Tulsa, Akron, Grand Canyon, Boise State, South Florida, McNeese State, Belmont, George Washington, Illinois State, George Mason, Liberty, Yale and Dayton. At Torvik, you can sort teams by their average in quality-based metrics (BPI, KenPom and Torvik), and those are the teams outside of a high-major conference and outside of the current Top 25 that rank above Miami (Ohio).
The RedHawks are up to 36th in their average resume-based ranking and trail only Utah State and Saint Mary’s in that group. As I wrote last week, I’m fine with anyone who wants to rank Miami (Ohio). But for me to rank the RedHawks would run counter to the process I use every week.
Games between ranked teams this week
(All times ET)
No. 11 Kansas at No. 13 Texas Tech: Monday, 9 p.m., ESPN
No. 3 UConn at No. 22 St. John’s: Friday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox
No. 4 Duke at No. 14 North Carolina: Saturday, 6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
No. 5 Illinois at No. 10 Michigan State: Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox
No. 8 Houston at No. 16 BYU: Saturday, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
