Houston remained No. 1 in the new AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll released Monday, March 11.
The Cougars (28-3 overall) received 52 first-place votes after crushing Big 12 rival Kansas, 76-46, over the weekend to clinch the conference’s regular season title. It’s the third consecutive week that Kelvin Sampson’s team has been ranked in the top spot.
UConn (28-3) and Purdue (28-3) both stayed at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.
No. 4 North Carolina (25-6) moved up three spots to get back into the top five after its impressive 84-79 victory over Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday night.
The Tar Heels finished off a regular-season sweep of Duke to clinch the ACC’s regular season championship.
Duke (24-7) dropped two spots to No. 11 after its loss to Carolina.
Tennessee (24-7) clinched the regular season SEC title last week, but its 85-81 home loss to Kentucky dropped the Volunteers (24-7) to No. 5 in this week’s poll.
Arizona (24-7), Iowa State (24-7), Creighton (23-8), Kentucky (23-8), and Marquette (23-8) rounded out the top 10.
Kentucky’s victory over Tennessee allowed the Wildcats to jump six spots in the new AP poll.
Clemson (21-10), which finished its regular season with an 81-76 road loss to Wake Forest on Saturday, received no votes for top 25 consideration from the various sportswriters and broadcasters who make up the AP poll.
The Big 12 had the most ranked teams of any conference this week with six. The SEC was second with five schools ranked.
Clemson will face the winner of Tuesday’s first-round ACC Tournament contest between Miami and Boston College on Wednesday night in Washington D.C. Tipoff is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised by either ESPN2 or ESPNU.