While Gonzaga and Baylor are firmly at the top of the Associated Press Men’s College Ledge Basketball poll, Shaka Smart and fourth-ranked Texas are also pushing for the top tier of the rankings.
Zags and the second-ranked Bears ranked 1-2 in Mon’s latest top 25, as they have all season. But Longhorns jumped four places after a weekend in Kansas to get the highest ranking of the program under their sixth year coach under Kansas, as well as their first top five rankings since February 2011.
“If this is the peak on January 2, it will be really disappointing,” Smart said after the 84-59 win over the Jayhawks. “That’s something we’ll talk about a lot. I asked the people in the locker room if this was all they wanted. Naturally it’s a rhetorical question: they want more.”
Texas (8-1) started the year at No. 19 and did not break the top 10 under Smart before this season. Longhorns did not crack in the top five after spending three weeks at number three in February 2011 to replace former coach Rick Barnes as chairman.
Top tires
The Mark Funa Bulldogs received 63 votes out of 64 who won first place in Monday’s election, while Scott Drew’s Bears received other votes. Gonzaga and Baylor have been 1-2 at the top in seven polls so far this season.
Villanova was ranked No. 1 in the same day. The program announced a halt to team activities due to coronavirus issues.
Iowa, Kansas, Crayton, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Michigan ranked in the top 10, while Houston at number 11 and West Virginia at number 14 dropped out of the group after last week.
Rising
Wolverines (-0-0) had a six-point lead after a win over Maryland and then-no, the biggest jump of the week. 19 Northwest. Michigan has now broken the top 10 crack in two seasons as coach of the young Howard, including a rapid rise from No. 1 to No. 4 last year after winning the Battle Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.
Iowa, No. 16 Minnesota and No. 19 Virginia Tech climbed five places each, while No. 17 Oregon joined Texas and Creton in four connected locations.
All in all, 10 teams climbed out of last week’s rankings.
Sliding
No. 25 was the biggest turmoil of the week in Florida State, falling seven places after losing to Clemson and then attributed coronavirus issues to the Seminoles program as it had its game against No. 21 Duke.
Houston and No. 23 dropped six places in the state of Michigan, while No. 18 Texas Tech joined sliding five places in West Virginia.
No. 6 Kansas Texas went down three places after the loss, dropping from last week’s ranking to a total of 11 teams.
Status quo
Gonzaga and Baylor have been the only teams in their positions since last week.
Welcome
No. 19 Clemson returned to the polls for the second time this season, joining the Atlantic Coast Conference team Virginia Tech. Another new addition was St. Louis, the Bilicans ranked Michigan State 23rd and the first AP in the top 25 since the 2013-14 season.
Removed (for now)
Northwest (No. 19) and Ohio State (No. 25) abstained from voting to make room for Clemson and St. Louis.
Conference Watch
The biggest goal of the teams that get ranked in the Big Ten continues, however, the Big 12 performs strongly in the top field of voting.
The Big Ten has seven ranked teams, including No. 12 Illinois and No. 15 Rutgers, with three in the top 10. But the Big 12 has three of the top six teams in Baylor, Texas and Kansas and five teams overall.
The ACC also has five teams, but again, it’s a backdold bunch. The Tigers and Hawkeys are ranked No. 19 in the panchayat, followed by Duke, No. 22 Virginia and No. 25 FSU.
The Big East (Villanova and Creighton) and the Southeastern Conference (Tennessee and No. 13 Missouri) are the only other leagues with multiple ranked teams.
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