College basketball rankings: Duke and Houston maintain top spots in AP Top 25 ahead of March Madness<\/p>\n
Duke and Houston kept their positions at No. 1 and No. 2 in the latest AP Top 25 college basketball poll, released Monday, marking the second week in a row they’ve held these spots. Duke garnered 49 first-place votes after winning the ACC championship, while Big 12 champion Houston secured six in the final rankings before the start of March Madness this week.<\/p>\n
Florida also picked up two first-place votes and climbed to No. 3 after capturing the SEC Tournament title this week.<\/p>\n
Florida’s ascent pushed Auburn down to No. 4, giving the Gators the distinction of being the highest-ranked SEC team entering the NCAA Tournament, following a six-game winning streak. Auburn, the No. 1 overall seed, enters the tournament with its lowest AP poll ranking since Week 4, having lost three of its last four games. It earned two first-place votes this week, the fewest since Week 2.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, we’re panicked,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl responded sarcastically over the weekend when asked if recent struggles were a concern. “We lost to some great teams. But yeah, we’re panicked. I can’t wait for next weekend to start playing again.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Below is the top 25 entering the NCAA Tournament. First-place votes are in parentheses:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1. Duke (49)<\/p>\n
2. Houston (6)<\/p>\n
3. Florida (2)<\/p>\n
4. Auburn (2)<\/p>\n
5. St. John’s<\/p>\n
6. Tennessee<\/p>\n
7. Alabama<\/p>\n
8. Michigan State<\/p>\n
9. Texas Tech<\/p>\n
10. Louisville<\/p>\n
11. Maryland<\/p>\n
12. Clemson<\/p>\n
13. Wisconsin<\/p>\n
14. Michigan<\/p>\n
15. Iowa State<\/p>\n
16. Memphis<\/p>\n
17. BYU<\/p>\n
18. Kentucky<\/p>\n
19. Texas A&M<\/p>\n
20. Saint Mary’s<\/p>\n
21. Arizona<\/p>\n
22. Purdue<\/p>\n
23. Missouri<\/p>\n
24. Gonzaga<\/p>\n
25. Oregon<\/p>\n
Others 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<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
College basketball rankings: Duke and Houston maintain top spots in AP Top 25 ahead of March Madness Duke and Houston kept their positions at No. 1 and No. 2 in the latest AP Top 25 college basketball poll, released Monday, marking the second week in a row they’ve held these spots. Duke garnered 49 first-place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2774,248],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duke-blue-devils","category-ncaa"],"yoast_head":"\n