Houston maintained its first place in the top 25 rankings for men’s varsity basketball players updated Monday, fending off transstate opponent Texas, who gained ground in Houston’s grip on first place but retained second place. Put the votes in Texas at 14 after a 45-8 lead in favor of the Cougars last week. No. 3 Virginia and No. 4 Purdue got three and eight votes, respectively.
While Houston held on at the top, North Carolina’s preseason decline in the rankings continued, officially falling out of the top 25, becoming the first preseason team to ever fall out of the rankings in the AP Top 25 era . UNC opened its season 5-0 but has lost its last four games, including Indiana and Virginia Tech on the road last week. In 1965-66, UCLA experienced a similar fall from grace after the preseason No. 1 Bruins fell after just three weeks – when only 10 teams were ranked.
The top of this week’s AP poll — though the top three remain intact — also has a new look. Purdue moved up one spot to fourth, UConn and Kansas jumped three spots to fifth and sixth, Tennessee moved up from outside the top 10 to seventh, and Alabama moved up from 11th to eighth. Arizona, also tied for 11th with Alabama last week, moved up to 9th while Arizona stayed in the top 10 despite an upset loss to Utah on Thursday.
AP-Top 25
Top 25 teams in the Associated Press college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, Sunday records, and total points based on a 25-point first-place vote plus one point for a 25th-place vote. Place and ranking of the last week :
Others get votes: And 70, Charleston 54, Miami 29, Virginia Tech 27, Arizona-Str 20, Utah 16, Wisconsin 16, UNLV 14, Texas Tech 10, West Virginia 8, Market 7, Xavier 6, New Mexico 3, State of Michigan 3, Memphis 3, Missouri 2, North Carolina 1, State of Kansas 1.