CLEVELAND, Ohio — Gonzaga remains No. 1 in the weekly release of the Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll announced Monday, and at this point in the season there is little debate about it as the only undefeated Division I team in the nation.
The Bulldogs (28-0) received 59 of 65 first place votes and 1,618 points with two weeks remaining in the regular season, and pointing toward NCAA Tournament play.
Villanova, the defending NCAA national champion, remains No. 2 with five first-place votes and 1,556 points. And Kansas stays at No. 3 with the last first-place vote and 1,503 points.
The shift in the top five has Arizona moving up to No. 4 and UCLA up to No. 5 rounding out the top five. Baylor, No. 4 last week, fell nine spots to No. 9 after losing at home to Kansas.
New this week to the Top 25 is No. 25 Wichita State over ousted South Carolina. Amazingly, even after losing three straight, Virginia remains in the Top 25 and only dropped four spots to No. 18.
Top 25 update: It was not long ago when almost every team in the Top 25 failed to go two weeks straight without at least one loss. Things are starting to settle in now as 11 teams on the list have since gone a fortnight without a stumble. One of those teams is the Kansas Jayhawks, who have been living on the edge all season, but rarely taken a tumble.
Going into analytics mode, Kenpom, one of the statistical services that rates every Division I basketball team in the nation, has a category called ‘luck.’ Interestingly, Kansas is the only Top 25 team ranked among the top 25 luckiest teams in the nation.
On the other hand, according to Kenpom’s offensive standards, seven of the top 10 and 15 of the top 20 offensive teams in the nation are in the top 25, and 14 of the top defensive teams in the country are in the top 25.
No. 1 Gonzaga, by the way, is the only AP Top 25 team ranked in Kenpom’s top five offensively and defensively.
If you have a favorite team or conference, it is something to keep an eye on two weeks before the start of post season play.
ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 19, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:
RecordPts Prv 1. Gonzaga (59) 28-0 1618 1 2. Villanova (5) 26-2 1556 2 3. Kansas (1) 24-3 1503 3 4. Arizona 25-3 1356 5 5. UCLA 24-3 1316 6 6. Oregon 24-4 1297 7 7. Louisville 22-5 1267 8 8. North Carolina 23-5 1138 10 9. Baylor 22-5 1108 4 10. Duke 22-5 1014 12 11. Kentucky 22-5 943 13 12. West Virginia 21-6 908 9 13. Florida 22-5 822 15 14. Purdue 22-5 807 16 15. Cincinnati 24-3 733 18 16. Wisconsin 22-5 713 11 17. SMU 24-4 554 19 18. Virginia 18-8 427 14 19. Florida State 21-6 419 17 20. Saint Mary’s 24-3 375 22 21. Notre Dame 21-7 322 25 22. Butler 21-6 295 24 23. Creighton 22-5 178 20 24. Maryland 22-5 159 23 25. Wichita State 25-4 153 —
Others receiving votes: VCU 39, Northwestern 25, Iowa State 22, South Carolina 12, Southern Cal 10, Dayton 9, Middle Tennessee 8, Oklahoma State 7, Minnesota 5, Miami 2, Monmouth (N.J.) 2, Michigan 1, Vermont 1, Virginia Tech 1.
ELTON ALEXANDER’S BALLOT
1. Gonzaga
2. Villanova
3. Kansas
4. Arizona
5. UCLA
6. Oregon
7. Baylor
8. Louisville
9. North Carolina
10. West Virginia
11. Duke
12. Kentucky
13. Wisconsin
14. Florida
15. Purdue
16. Cincinnati
17. SMU
18. Florida State
19. Saint Mary’s
20. Butler
21. Notre Dame
22. Maryland
23. Dayton
24. Monmouth
25. Virginia
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