CLEVELAND, Ohio — Gonzaga, the only undefeated team in Division I, once again remained in the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll announced Monday.
Gonzaga (26-0) got 60 of 65 first-place votes and 1,620 points to be No. 1 for the third straight week. The Bulldogs are followed by the defending national champions, Villanova (24-2), which remained No. 2 and received the other five first-place votes.
Rounding out the Top 5 are Kansas, Baylor and Arizona, none of which received any No. 1 votes.
Back this week to the Top 25 ranks is Notre Dame. Butler remained on the list despite losing three of its last four games.
Top 25 breakdown: Just completed one of the quietest weeks in the Top 25 this season. And still 12 teams suffered a loss in the ranks, although none went down twice. The big riser this week was Duke. Sitting on the edge of their season going south, the Blue Devils took down North Carolina at home, then Clemson, barely, on the road. Duke has had a resurgence since head coach Mike Krzyzewski returned from back surgery.
Kansas continues to win by a thread – two games by a combined four points – but win just the same. Gonzaga has seemingly crossed its biggest hurdle to go undefeated for the season, at St. Mary’s. Now that the NCAA has released its projected Top 16 seeds, with Villanova, Kansas, Baylor and Gonzaga on the top line, it will be interesting to see how many hold up a month from now.
AP Top 25 Poll
By The Associated Press
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 12, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:
RecordPtsPrv 1. Gonzaga (60) 26-0 1620 1 2. Villanova (5) 24-2 1564 2 3. Kansas 22-3 1493 3 4. Baylor 22-3 1394 6 5. Arizona 23-3 1301 9 6. UCLA 23-3 1276 10 7. Oregon 22-4 1229 5 8. Louisville 20-5 1204 4 9. West Virginia 20-5 1012 13 10. North Carolina 21-5 1005 8 11. Wisconsin 21-4 868 7 12. Duke 20-5 857 18 13. Kentucky 20-5 854 15 14. Virginia 18-6 825 12 15. Florida 20-5 717 17 16. Purdue 20-5 682 16 17. Florida State 21-5 665 14 18. Cincinnati 22-3 634 11 19. SMU 22-4 415 25 20. Creighton 21-4 298 23 21. South Carolina 20-5 296 19 22. Saint Mary’s 22-3 269 20 23. Maryland 21-4 136 21 24. Butler 19-6 129 22 25. Notre Dame 19-7 122 —
Others receiving votes: Wichita State 87, Xavier 72, Northwestern 60,Southern Cal 16, VCU 14, Dayton 4, Middle Tennessee 3, Monmouth 2, Oklahoma State 1, Vermont 1.
Elton’s Top 25 ballot
1. Gonzaga
2. Villanova
3. Kansas
4. Baylor
5. Arizona
6. Louisville
7. UCLA
8. Oregon
9. West Virginia
10. North Carolina
11. Wisconsin
12. Kentucky
13. Duke
14. Cincinnati
15. Purdue
16. Virginia
17. Florida State
18. Florida
19. Creighton
20. SMU
21. South Carolina
22. St. Mary’s
23. Xavier
24. Monmouth
25. Maryland
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