UCLA continues to rise in both the postseason and the Associated Press men’s college basketball poll.
While Houston was No. 1 in Monday’s poll for the third straight week, the Bruins moved up two spots to No. 2 for their highest ranking of the season. UCLA (27-4) has won its last 10 games, including a perfect home record against top-ranked Arizona in the regular season finale behind star Jaime Jaquez Jr.
“I’ll say this, usually the recipe for success in March, in addition to talent, is a great player and senior management like a guy like Jaime Jaques,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. “I mean, we have a chance. But, as you know, this tournament is crazy. It’s not ‘normal in March.'”
Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars moved up to No. 1 for the third time this season, receiving 58 first-place votes, with the other three going to UCLA.
Houston hadn’t been ranked No. 1 in the Phi Slama Jama era before this season since 1983, but the Cougars spent a total of seven weeks at the top to tie Purdue for the most of any team this season.
Houston (29-2) closed out its regular season with its 11th straight regular season win at Memphis on Sunday.
HIGH LEVEL
The only change in the top five was UCLA trading places with No. 4 Alabama, Kansas remained at No. 3 despite a loss at Texas in Saturday’s season finale, and the Boilermakers remained fifth.
Marquette remains at No. 6, followed by the Longhorns, who move up two spots to No. 7. Arizona, Gonzaga and Baylor rounded out the top 10.
NO
Texas A&M is the week’s biggest climber, jumping six spots to No. 18 after beating Alabama in its regular-season finale. It’s part of a strong finish under fourth-year coach Buzz Williams, with the Aggies going 17-3 since mid-December and losing just once since early February. Prior to this season, Texas A&M had not been ranked since February 2018.
A total of eight teams moved up from last week’s spots.
SLIP
Tennessee made its biggest drop of the week, falling five spots to No. 17 after losing its regular-season finale at Auburn and its first full game since losing Zakai Zeigler to a season-ending knee injury. Indiana then fell four spots to 19th in a 22-point home loss to Iowa.
A total of six teams dropped their rankings last week.
STATUS
Nearly a third of last week’s ranked teams (eight) remain in place, including No. 13 Virginia, No. 22 TCU and No. 23 Kentucky.
WELCOME BACK
All three of the week’s additions are returning starters in the poll, led by No. 21 Duke.
The Blue Devils (23-8) are back in the polls for the first time since falling after opening the year at No. 7 in mid-January. First-year coach John Scheyer led Duke to six straight wins. season, including Saturday’s rivalry win at North Carolina, upset UNC’s NCAA Tournament hopes.
Creighton checked in at No. 24, returning from a one-week absence to appear in the poll for the third time this season. Then came No. 25 Missouri, which won its final four regular-season games to return to the polls after spending two weeks in the first half of January.
Goodbye (For Now)
Providence (No. 20), Maryland (No. 21) and Pittsburgh (No. 25) all graduated this week. All three play in their respective conference tournaments this week.
SAVE THE CONFERENCE
The Big 12 and SEC shared the lead with five ranked teams each this week, though three of the Big 12 ranked in the top 10.
The Big East followed with four ranked teams, including No. 11 UConn. The Atlantic Coast Conference had three, followed by the Big Ten, Pac-12 and West Coast Conference with two each.
The American Athletic and Mountain West conferences each had one ranked team.
ONE MORE
Next week’s poll will mark the final edition of the 2022-23 season.
