Gonzaga held on to the top spot in the AP Top 25 poll for a fourth straight week, but Baylor made a huge surge on the heels of a pair of impressive road wins during the week.
The Bears (13-1) took 31 of the 65 first-place votes to move to No. 2 in the poll after beating Texas Tech and Kansas. Gonzaga (18-1) garnered 30 first-place votes to narrowly hang on to the No. 1 ranking with 1,574 votes, just seven ahead of Baylor.
Baylor jumped over Duke and Kansas to move to No. 2. The Bears’ only loss of the season came Nov. 8 to Washington, 67-64.
Duke (15-1) fell to the No. 3 spot, followed by Auburn (15-0), Butler (15-1), Kansas (12-3), San Diego State (17-0), Oregon (14-3) and Florida State (14-2).
Kentucky (12-3) climbed four spots to No. 10.
Ohio State (11-5), which was ranked No. 5 on Dec. 30, again plummeted down the list, moving from No. 11 to 21 after losses to Maryland and Indiana this week. The Buckeyes have lost four straight.
Two other Big Ten teams made sharp drops, with Michigan State (13-4) falling from No. 8 to 15 and Maryland (13-3) from No. 12 to 17. Another conference team, Penn State fell from No. 20 last week to out of the poll after a pair of losses on the week.
Wichita State (15-1) climbed seven spots from No. 23 to 16.
Moving into the Top 25 were No. 18 Seton Hall (12-4), No. 24 Illinois (12-5) and No. 25 Creighton (13-4).
Virginia and Arizona joined Penn State in falling out of the Top 25.
AP TOP 25
1. Gonzaga(30) 18-1 1574
2. Baylor(31) 13-1 1567
3. Duke(4) 15-1 1529
4. Auburn 15-0 1359
5. Butler 15-1 1299
6. Kansas 12-3 1286
7. San Diego State 17-0 1266
8. Oregon 14-3 1163
9. Florida State 14-2 1093
10. Kentucky 12-3 960
11. Louisville 13-3 943
12. West Virginia 13-2 911
13. Dayton 14-2 842
14. Villanova 12-3 822
15. Michigan State 13-4 735
16. Wichita State 15-1 629
17. Maryland 13-3 616
18. Seton Hall 12-4 496
19. Michigan 11-5 358
20. Colorado 13-3 345
21. Ohio State 11-5 270
22. Memphis 13-3 232
23. Texas Tech 10-5 111
24. Illinois 12-5 109
25. Creighton 13-4 97
Others receiving votes
Iowa 88, Stanford 77, Arkansas 65, Indiana 50, Virginia 41, Penn State 36, LSU 30, Arizona 20, Wisconsin 19, Liberty 11, Northern Iowa 10, Purdue 10, Washington 9, Duquesne 9, Rutgers 8, TCU 8, Virginia Tech 5, Houston 4, Oregon State 4, BYU 3, East Tennessee State 2, Akron 1, Harvard 1, USC 1, Saint Mary’s 1
Dropped from rankings
Virginia 18, Penn State 20, Arizona 24
–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)
