Houston was No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll.
It’s the third straight week the Cougars (28-3 overall) were ranked No. 1 in both the coaches poll and AP Top 25 poll.
UConn (28-3) remained at No. 2 and Purdue (28-3) stayed at No. 3 in the new poll, released Monday.
Houston received 29 first-place votes after a 30-point blowout win over Big 12 rival Kansas to clinch the conference’s regular season title and continue making its case for the No. 1 overall seed in this month’s NCAA Tournament.
A big mover in the top 10 was North Carolina (25-6), which climbed three spots from last week’s poll to No. 4 after its 84-79 victory over Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday night.
North Carolina’s regular-season series sweep of Duke saw the Tar Heels move back into the top five for the first time in four weeks — when they were ranked fifth back on Feb. 12.
Duke (24-7) dropped three spots to No. 11 in the coaches poll. No other ACC school was ranked or received consideration from the 32 NCAA coaches who make up the poll.
Tennessee (24-7) rounded out the top five. The Volunteers defeated South Carolina last week to win the SEC’s regular season title but fell to Kentucky in Knoxville on Saturday to drop one spot from No. 4.
John Calipari’s Wildcats (23-8) were a big mover from last week’s rankings, climbing four spots to jump back into the top 10 at No. 9.
No. 6 Creighton (23-8) also moved up four spots after the Bluejays’ 89-75 win over Marquette (23-8). Arizona and Iowa State (both 24-7) fell two spots to Nos. 7 and 8, respectively. Marquette fell one spot to round out the top 10.
Florida, San Diego State, and South Florida fell out of the top 25.