Baylor maintains stranglehold on No. 1 spot
Reigning national champion Baylor isn’t showing any sign of loosening its grasp on No. 1.
The Bears remained the unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press men’s poll for the fourth time in five weeks.
That came after Baylor (15-0) beat Oklahoma and TCU last week to push its winning streak to 21 games dating to last year’s title run in the Indianapolis bubble.
That streak is the third longest in the Big 12’s 26-year history, trailing Baylor’s 23-game run in 2019-20 and Kansas’ 22-game stretch in 1996-97. The Bears enter this week as the only team in the top 10 of Kenpom’s adjusted efficiency rankings for both offense (120.6 points per 100 possessions) and defense (89.6).
They trailed by nine early in the second half of Saturday’s win at TCU but ended up winning by double figures for the 12th time this year.
“I think when you’re a No. 1 team, everybody is going to look at you in situations like this,” Baylor point guard James Akinjo said. “They want to see how you respond.”
So far, it’s been good enough to stay in place at the top.
No. 2 Gonzaga and No. 3 UCLA each climbed two spots after losses by Duke and Purdue, while Auburn and Southern California were new additions to the top five.
For the Tigers, they jumped five spots after beating South Carolina and Florida to push their winning streak to 11 games. Then there were the Trojans, who climbed two spots to their highest ranking since last reaching No. 5 in December 1974 after beating California on Thursday.
USC (13-0) joins Baylor as the last two unbeaten teams in Division I men’s basketball.
Arizona, Purdue, Duke, Kansas and Michigan State rounded out a
reshuffled group of the same top-10 teams from last week.
No. 13 Wisconsin had the biggest jump in this week’s poll, leaping 10 spots after upsetting the then-no. 3 Boilermakers along with beating Iowa and Maryland in Big Ten play. The Purdue and Maryland wins were on the road.
“For me, knock on wood, this group has been terrific,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said after the Iowa win. “I can’t even get mad at them. They just give me everything they’ve got dang near every day. They haven’t had a bad day — maybe a snippet of a bad day, but they quickly corrected it.”
No. 12 LSU was the other big riser, climbing nine spots after wins against ranked Kentucky and Tennessee teams.
In all, 12 teams climbed in Monday’s poll, including No. 19 Texas Tech (six spots), No. 14 Villanova (five) and No. 17 Xavier (five).
No. 24 Alabama had the biggest fall, sliding nine spots after losing to a Missouri team that was 6-7 entering
the game. No. 21 Texas and No. 23 Providence each fell seven spots as the week’s other big tumblers.
In all, 10 teams fell in the poll, including Duke falling six spots after losing at home to Miami on Saturday night in their second game back from a COVID-19 outbreak.
S. Carolina keeps grip on women’s top rank
South Carolina beat two more ranked opponents to strengthen its hold on the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press women’s poll.
The Gamecocks topped thenno. 13 LSU and No. 21 Kentucky this past week to raise their record to 8-0 against Top 25 teams this season. South Carolina remained the No. 1 team Monday, garnering 26 of the 30 first-place votes from a national media panel.
Stanford and Louisville were the next two teams in the poll.
The Cardinals received the other four No. 1 votes. North Carolina State moved up to fourth while Tennessee was fifth. It’s the Lady Vols’ highest ranking since Nov. 23, 2015.
Indiana remained sixth while Arizona fell three spots to seventh after suffering its first loss of the season to Southern California on Sunday.
Maryland, Iowa State and Connecticut rounded out the top 10. It’s Iowa State’s best ranking in 20 years. The Cyclones hadn’t been in the top 10 since the final poll of the 2002 season.
Colorado, the last undefeated team, re-entered the Top 25 at No. 22 and Kansas State also came into the poll at 25. The Buffaloes’ next game is against No. 2 Stanford on Friday. The Wildcats, who were ranked for the first time since 2017, host Iowa State on Tuesday.
Iowa and Texas A&M fell out of the poll.
After an unplanned hiatus because of COVID-19 issues, Uconn is back playing again and among the top 10 teams in the poll.
The Huskies saw their streak of top-10 appearances that dated to 2005 end right before the holidays after a loss to Louisville. That was the team’s last game until beating Creighton on Sunday. The Huskies had four games wiped out because of coronavirus cases.