The Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball team found themselves back in The Associated Press’ Top 25 released Monday.
Arizona came in ranked No. 21 after falling out of the top 25 completely the week prior. It had been on a four-week downturn prior to Monday’s rankings and was as high as No. 19 a month ago.
The Wildcats are coming off a 2-1 mark this past week. They started their Big 12 Championship run with an 88-77 win over Kansas, getting revenge for a loss in the regular season finale. Guard KJ Lewis had a game with 19 points, five rebounds and six assists.
Arizona made it two wins in a row behind an 86-80 win over No. 9-ranked Texas Tech where guard Caleb Love paced the Wildcats behind 27 points and nine assists.
The Wildcats couldn’t make it three straight victories, though, falling 72-65 to Houston in the Big 12 Championship.
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Duke remains at No. 1 in AP Top 25 entering March Madness; St. John’s rises to No. 5
AP — Duke remained atop the top 25 men’s college basketball poll on Monday a day after the committee that selects the 68-team field for the NCAA Tournament went with Auburn as the No. 1 overall seed.
The Blue Devils (31-3) earned 49 of 59 first-place votes in the latest poll after sweeping the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament titles. That marks Duke’s second straight week at No. 1, the first such stint in the three-year tenure of Jon Scheyer as the successor to retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski.
The Blue Devils completed its ACC title run despite losing freshman star Cooper Flagg (ankle) and versatile defender Maliq Brown (shoulder) to injuries in the quarterfinals. Scheyer has said he’s optimistic Flagg will be ready to go for the first round of the NCAAs, with the Blue Devils headlining the East Region.
Big 12 Tournament champion Houston also stayed at No. 2 while collecting six-first-place votes, followed by Southeastern Conference Tournament champion Florida and then Auburn, which had spent a national-best eight weeks at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 this season.
The Gators and Tigers each earned the remaining two first-place votes, and the top four teams of the AP Top 25 all earned 1-seeds for March Madness with Sunday night’s bracket unveiling.
St. John’s climbed one spot to No. 5 after winning the Big East title, with Rick Pitino guiding the Red Storm to its highest ranking since spending a week at the same spot in January 1991. St. John’s (30-4) has reached the 30-win mark for the first time since late coaching great Lou Carnesecca won a program-record 31 games in both the 1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons.
The Associated Press’ top 25 men’s college basketball rankings — March 17
Team Record Pts Prv 1. Duke (49) 31-3 1463 1 2. Houston 30-4 1394 2 3. Florida 30-4 1370 4 4. Auburn 28-5 1291 3 5. St. John’s 30-4 1225 6 6. Tennessee 27-7 1174 8 7. Alabama 25-8 1120 5 8. Michigan St. 27-6 1080 7 9. Texas Tech 25-8 926 9 10. Louisville 27-7 809 13 11. Maryland 25-8 764 11 12. Clemson 27-6 746 10 13. Wisconsin 26-9 732 18 14. Michigan 25-9 681 22 15. Iowa State 24-9 641 12 16. Memphis 29-5 636 16 17. BYU 24-9 563 17 18. Kentucky 22-11 511 15 19. Texas A&M 22-10 457 14 20. Saint Mary’s 28-5 306 19 21. Arizona 22-12 253 Unranked 22. Purdue 22-11 227 20 23. Missouri 22-11 159 21 24. Gonzaga 25-8 151 Unranked 25. Oregon 24-9 115 23Others receiving votes: Drake 107, Marquette 69, UC San Diego 57, Illinois 55, VCU 28, Creighton 28, Mississippi 13, McNeese St. 4, UConn 4, Colorado St. 4, Kansas 3, High Point 3, UCLA 3, Akron 3.
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