The Jayhawks took 35 of the 61 first-place votes in the poll, while the Tigers took the remaining 26 and climbed two points to No. 2 after winning the Maui title. The Huskies fell to No. 25, narrowly avoiding becoming the second team in nearly four decades to go from No. 2 to unranked in a week.
It was part of a tumultuous week during the holiday weekend tournament, which saw six new teams enter the rankings.
Kansas (7-0), which beat Duke last week, has increased its margin over the No. 2-ranked team every week since the preseason poll and had a 107-point margin over the Huskies last week. But with the Tigers — ranked No. 1 in Ken Pom’s metrics — beating ranked Iowa State and North Carolina in the Maui title race, that margin is just nine points this week.
Auburn was joined by fellow SEC schools No. 3 Tennessee and No. 4 Kentucky, each team climbing four spots. Marquette was next at No. 5, followed by Iowa State, Gonzaga, Purdue, Duke and Alabama rounding out the top 10.
UConn’s slide
The Huskies (5-3) had won 17 straight games entering the Maui Invitational, but things turned sour quickly with an opening-round overtime loss to Memphis in a game that saw coach Dan Hurley question the officiating. What was the anger? UConn lost to Colorado the next day, then lost to Dayton in the seventh-place game to finish last in the prestigious tournament.
It’s reminiscent of No. 2 Arizona’s 0-3 crash at Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas in November 2017. But the Huskies avoided the same poll fate as the Wildcats, becoming the first team to go from No. 2 to unranked. A week from Louisville in November 1986 after the tournament flopped in the Great Alaska Shootout.
Rise and fall
While Oregon jumped 26 spots to enter the AP Top 25, Marquette, Purdue and No. 13 Florida made the week’s biggest climbs in the poll, each rising five spots. No. 11 Wisconsin joined Tennessee and Kentucky with four-spot jumps as 10 teams moved up from their spots in last week’s poll.
In total, seven teams dropped from last week’s poll.
While UConn’s decline was notable, No. 17 Houston dropped 11 spots after losing to Alabama and is now No. 24 San Diego State at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.
North Carolina also had a big drop, falling eight spots to No. 20 after losses to Auburn and Michigan State in Maui. Gonzaga dropped four spots to seventh after losing its Battle of 4 Atlantis opener to West Virginia.
The status quo
No. 23 Mississippi joins Kansas as the only teams to retain their position from last week.
welcome
Oregon led the week’s six new teams after beating Alabama to win the Players Era Festival championship, followed by Memphis after finishing second to Auburn in Maui.
No. 18 Pittsburgh, No. 19 Illinois, No. 21 Oklahoma — who won the Atlantis title — and San Diego State were the other new additions this week.
goodbye (for now)
Indiana (No. 14), Arkansas (No. 19), Creighton (No. 21), Xavier (No. 22), Arizona (No. 24) and Mississippi State (No. 25) fell out of the poll.
Conference clock
The SEC led all conferences with eight ranked teams, followed by the Big 12 with five. The Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conferences each had three ranked teams, while the West Coast, American Athletic and Mountain West Conferences each had one team.