The Auburn Tigers are off to one of the most dominant starts in college basketball history in 2024. [autotag]Bruce Pearl[/autotag]’s squad is off to a 7-0 start, including wins against No. 5 Iowa State, No. 7 Houston, No. 13 North Carolina, and a 6-1 Memphis team that has a victory over two-time defending national champion UConn on its resume.
The wins over Houston and Iowa State, who were both ranked in the top five of the AP Poll at the time, made Auburn the first program since Kanas in 1990 to defeat a pair of AP top five programs within its first five games. That stat, along with a recent victory over Memphis in the Maui Invitational Championship, have caused many experts around the sport to place the Tigers as among the top teams in the country.
A pair of those experts, CBS Sport’s Jon Rothstein and NCAA.com’s Andy Katz, officially placed [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag] and company at the No. 1 ranking in their respective polls on Monday. Rothstein, who releases his “Rothstein 45” ranking every week, has Auburn ranked at the top spot ahead of No. 2 Kansas and No. 3 Marquette. Katz, who releases a weekly “Power 37” equally placed the Tigers in his top spot, again ahead of No. 2 Kansas. No. 3 Tennessee, and No. 4 Marquette.
Both experts have at least three SEC teams in their top ten rankings. Rothstein has Tennessee (No. 4), and Kentucky (No. 5), just behind the Tigers while Katz has the Volunteers ranked No. 3, the Wildcats ranked No. 5, and Florida at No. 9.
Auburn checks in at No. 2 in this week’s Coaches Poll from USA TODAY Sports, trailing Kansas for the top spot. No. 1 Kansas did manage to earn a fantastic road victory over Duke last week, however, giving Bill Self’s squad every right to hold onto the top ranking in both polls.
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