Auburn a unanimous No. 1, Duke now No. 2; Michigan St into top 10, Louisville ends AP Top 25 drought

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One constant: Auburn.

The Tigers were the clear number one choice in the latest Associated Press men's college basketball rankings released on Monday, maintaining their spot on top despite 19 ranked teams suffering at least one loss last week, including seven of the top 10 teams.

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Alabama and Florida rounded out the top five and actually slipped one spot considering each still lost a game last week.

Only three teams - Alabama, Florida, and No. 6 Tennessee - stayed in the same position as last week. The week was quite chaotic, allowing No. 8 Michigan State to join the top 10 for the first time this season, and No. 22 Missouri to return to the poll for the first time since the 2022-23 season.

Louisville's climb

The city of Louisville has experienced a significant transformation under the leadership of first-year coach Pat Kelsey.

For the first time since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013.

Rising Red Storm

No. 20 St. John's returned to the poll this week, and it marks their highest ranking since they reached No. 15 on December 29, 2014, under coach Steve Lavin. The Red Storm, now in their second year under Rick Pitino, took over first place in the Big East by beating Seton Hall and also got a boost from Marquette's loss to Xavier. This is the first time in 30 years that they've held a share of the Big East regular season title.

St. John's (16-3) has started off the season with its best 19-game record since achieving a 17-2 mark (20-2 overall) back in 1985-86. They've also hit 7 wins in a row in Big East action, which is their strongest start to Big East play since they achieved 8-1 in the 1998-99 season.

Rising and falling

Eleventh-ranked Purdue and eighteenth-ranked Wisconsin had the largest increase among the teams, each moving up six places. Sixteenth-ranked Ole Miss rose five spots after finishing with a split record against fourth-ranked Alabama and 14th-ranked Mississippi State.

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Welcome back

According to the rankings, West Virginia has rejoined the top 25 after defeating Iowa State.

Louisville hadn't been ranked since jumping to number 25 on January 25, 2021.

Farewell (for now)

Three ranked teams fell to defeat in both of their games last week, resulting in their removal from the poll.

Gonzaga came up short against Oregon State and Santa Clara, which resulted in them slipping out of the top 25 in the AP rankings for the first time since the early part of last year. Georgia fell from 23rd place after losing to both Tennessee and Auburn. Baylor, which was 25th in the previous week's rankings, dropped out after suffering setbacks to Arizona and TCU.

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Conference watch

The SEC has eight ranked teams now that Georgia has been removed from the poll, with five of those teams in the top 10.

The Big Ten had six teams in the rankings, followed by the Big 12 with five. The Big East and the Atlantic Coast Conference each had two teams ranked, while the American Athletic Conference and the Mountain West Conference each had one.

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AP Sports Writer Mike Fitzpatrick assisted with this story.

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https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball