Arizona and Syracuse Remain No. 1 and No. 2 in NCAA Hoops
The latest NCAA Men’s Basketball top 25 has been announced with the Arizona Wildcats and Syracuse Orange remaining the No. 1 and No. 2 teams respectively.
Arizona is 20-0 on the season and was once against the runaway pick for the top spot with 63 of 65 No. 1 votes. The Orange with a record of 19-0 received the other two No. 1 votes.
This is the eighth straight week that the two teams have been one-two in the top 25. Nevertheless, it is still one month short of the all time record set in 1971-72 when UCLA and Marquette sat 1-2 for 12 straight weeks.
This current 1-2 streak however is the longest since the 2008-09 season, when North Carolina and UConn opened the season and went 8 weeks as No. 1 and No. 2.
This is the 37th week Arizona has been a No. 1 team, which tied Ohio State at No. 8 for the all time list.
The Florida Gators moved up to No. 3 from No. 6. Another undefeated team, Wichita State at 21-0, moved up from No. 5 to No. 4. Besides Arizona and Syracuse, Wichita State is the only other Division I team still undefeated.
Wichita State was followed by Michigan State, dropping from third, Oklahoma State, Villanova and Michigan.
The Wolverines jumped 11 spots from No. 21 to No. 10 with a strong showing against other ranked teams. Michigan has won three consecutive games against teams ranked in the top 10 – Wisconsin, Michigan State and Iowa.
After a short absence, Creighton moved into the top 25 at No. 20 after its big win of 96-68 over Villanova, which was ranked No. 4 at the time. Creighton has been ranked four weeks this season.
Rounding out the top 25 is Texas, which moved into the top 25 for the first week since the 2010-11 season. In that season, the Longhorns went as high as No. 3.
Texas faces its fourth straight Top 25 opponent on Saturday when it plays No. 8 ranked Kansas at home.
Texas is 3-0 against ranked opponents in its past three games with wins against Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas State.
Kansas also enjoyed a winning streak of four games versus ranked opponents but that was snapped when TCU beat them.
With Texas entering the Top 25, seven Big 12 teams have been ranked in the top 25 this season. The record of teams ranked in one conference during the same season is 10, by the Big East back in 2010-11.
Two teams from the Big 12 were knocked out of the top 25. Kansas State dropped from No. 22 following losses against Iowa State and Texas.
Baylor dropped from No. 24, which is the first time the Bears have not been ranked in the top 25 all season.
No. 17 Duke defeated No. 18 Pittsburgh on Monday and will travel on Saturday to the Carrier Dome to face the No. 2 Orange.
Kansas, Iowa State and Oklahoma will all play two games this week against teams in the top 25.
