AP men’s basketball Top 25: Arizona unanimous No. 1 again, Houston rockets to No. 3

If last season was the year of the SEC, this is the year of the Big 12 and Big Ten battling for superiority.

This week’s Associated Press men’s basketball Top 25 poll makes that clear.

Unbeaten Arizona was the unanimous No. 1 once again Monday, meaning the Wildcats have held onto the top spot for two full months. And the Big 12 leaders were one of four teams from the conference in the top 10: No. 3 Houston, No. 5 Iowa State and No. 9 Kansas — which hosts Arizona on Monday — also dotted the top 10.

The Big Ten, which hasn’t won a national championship since 2000, wasn’t far behind, placing No. 2 Michigan, No. 7 Nebraska, No. 8 Illinois and No. 10 Michigan State in the top 10.

Only No. 4 Duke of the ACC and No. 6 UConn of the Big East squeezed in from other conferences.

Starting with Monday’s game against KU, Arizona’s perfect record will be tested with four games against ranked opponents over two weeks. The Wildcats host No. 16 Texas Tech and No. 22 BYU, then travel to face No. 3 Houston. In total, six of Arizona’s final eight games are against ranked opponents.

At the other end of the poll, Kentucky returned to the Top 25 for the first time since Dec. 1, while Tennessee dropped out.

Here’s the full poll, along with the ballot of The Athletic’s C.J. Moore:

Others receiving votes: Alabama 72, Iowa 69, NC State 31, Tennessee 26, Villanova 17, Utah State 15, Georgia 6, Santa Clara 2, Auburn 2, Saint Mary’s 1.

How I ranked my top 5

I’ll likely continue to rank Arizona at No. 1 as long as it is undefeated, but Arizona and Michigan are essentially 1a and 1b, and you could make an argument for Michigan in the top spot. Michigan is No. 1 in the NET, wins above bubble, KPI, KenPom, Torvik and Evan Miya. Arizona is No. 1 in strength of record, where Michigan is No. 2. The only place where Arizona is not in the top two is at BPI, where Duke is No. 1 and Michigan No. 2. The resumes are almost identical, outside of Michigan’s one loss and also having two more wins in the second quadrant. The Wildcats will surely be the unanimous No. 1 until they lose a game, but we do have two teams worthy of that top spot. If the season were to end today, Michigan would have the third-highest efficiency margin in the history of KenPom and Arizona would rank fifth. (KenPom goes back to the 1996-97 season.)

I kept UConn, Duke and Illinois at Nos. 3-5 this week because all three still have better resumes than the teams below them and I’m hesitant to penalize teams too strongly for losing road games against quality competition.

Gonzaga plummets

Five teams in last week’s top 10 took losses this week, but only Gonzaga dropped out of my top 10. The reason, obviously, was the quality of the loss. While Portland played an unbelievable game, it’s a bad mark on the resume. The Zags are now one of only two teams in the Top 25 — St. John’s is the other — with a Quad 3 loss. They’re not equals, however. Providence is No. 63 at KenPom; Portland is 184. (The Providence loss was at home for St. John’s.)

It’s the first time since 2010 that Gonzaga has lost to a sub-150 opponent. That season the Zags lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed. This team will likely be a much higher seed, but that loss took Gonzaga out of consideration for No. 1 line and it could be difficult to get a No. 2 seed with the depth of the teams at the top. It wouldn’t be unprecedented, however, if Gonzaga did end up on one of the top two lines. Houston was a No. 1 seed in 2023 with a Q3 loss at home to Temple. Gonzaga also had a Q3 loss that season and landed a No. 3 seed.