Gonzaga and UCLA continued to hold the top two spots in Monday’s Associated Press poll of the top 25 male colleges, setting the stage for their much-anticipated showdown this week, while Purdue and Duke advance. into the top five.
The Bulldogs (4-0) had an easy week with wins over Alcorn State and Bellarmine, and also received 55 first-place votes from the 61-man media panel that regularly covers college basketball. The Bruins (4-0) received five votes in first place after knocking out Long Beach State and North Florida last week to head to Las Vegas with some momentum.
Gonzaga plays Central Michigan and UCLA face Bellarmine on Monday night in the Good Sam Empire Classic. The nation’s top two teams will play against each other Tuesday night in the Four Finals rematch of a game that won the Bulldogs in extra time.
“It’s important for everyone if you want to be in the NCAA tournament,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “If you want to get a high seed, you have to play really, really good teams. I think that’s very important for college basketball.”
Purdue received the single first-place vote and overtook Kansas in third place in the Top 25 following the Team’s subsequent win-No. 5 Villanova in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament. The Jayhawks are fourth and the Blues are fifth.
Defending national champion Baylor jumped to sixth after rough runs through Central Arkansas and Stanford, while Villanova only dropped to seventh by beating then-No. 12 Tennessee before losing to Purdue. This is followed by Texas and Memphis, with Kentucky and Alabama sharing 10th place in the second regular poll of the season.
Kentucky and Alabama are followed by Houston, Arkansas, Illinois and Tennessee in 15th place.
St. Bonaventure cemented its status as the middleweight darling earlier this season by jumping six places to 16th following wins over Clemson and Marquette. Arizona took its biggest leap in the polls at 17th place after beating Wichita State and overtaking No. 4 Michigan in the Roman Main Event, followed by another newcomer to the BYU poll.
“We have good players,” said Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd. “I know we’ve been out of the limelight; maybe a little bit it’s my fault that I didn’t look for it. But you know? We’re here now. And we belong together. “
Auburn and Michigan made the top 20, with Seton Hall, UConn, Florida, USC and Xavier completing the poll.
“This is where we are on a show,” said Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard, with whom the Pirates beat the Wolverines last week to win the title. First win against a top 5 non-attendant team on the road. “We can play against anyone in the country and we’ve been doing that for the last seven years.”
CONFERENCE CALL
SECOND – 6 (Score 10, tie 10, 13, 15, 19, 23)
Big East – 4 (No. 7, 21, 22, 25)
Big Ten – 3 (Numbers 3, 14, 20)
Big 12 – 3 (Numbers 4, 6, 8)
Pac-12 – 3 (Numbers 2, 17, 24)
America – 2 (No. 9, 12)
West Bank – 2 (No. 1, 18)
ACC – 1 (No. 5)
Atlantic 10 – 1 (No. 16)
UP AND DOWN
Purdue and Baylor rose three places in the top 10, and Alabama moved up four places to tie the tie with SEC rival Kentucky. The biggest drop came for Michigan, which finished fourth before two defeats sent coach Juwan Howard’s men all the way down to 20th.
“We’re going to get better, and I believe we will,” said Howard, who has another tough test against North Carolina on Dec. 1. “That’s part of the game: adversity. or how he responds next time.”
IN AND OUT
Arizona will be 31st last week and debut in the poll at 17th this week, while BYU will be 29th a week ago and enter the poll at 18th. Seton Hall came in 38th a week ago and came in at 21st, while Xavier put out a vote of four newcomers this week.
Oregon went from 12th to the first team. Ohio, North Carolina and Maryland also failed.
