College basketball rankings: Houston soars to No. 1 in AP Top 25 poll, Purdue moves ahead of UConn

The Cougars take the top spot after the Huskies lost to Creighton last week

By Kyle Boone

Feb 26, 2024 at 1:12 pm ET • 1 min read

USATSI

There's a new No. 1 in the latest AP Top 25 poll for the first time in seven weeks, as Houston on Monday supplanted UConn as the top team in the rankings. Houston moved up one spot for a third consecutive week to take the No. 1 spot with 53 of 62 available first-place votes. It's the first time Houston has been ranked No. 1 since Week 1 of the 2022-23 season.

UConn fell from the top after suffering its first loss in nearly two months -- an 85-66 beatdown on the road at Creighton -- but it did not fall far. Voters awarded the Huskies the second-most first-place votes on the week, with five, though because of the points system they dropped to No. 3 -- with Purdue sandwiched in between. Purdue earned four first-place votes and totaled 1,460 points to UConn's 1,459.

Arizona dropped out of this week's top five from No. 4 a week ago to No. 6 on Monday following a 1-1 week in which it lost to Washington State and won vs. Washington. The drop bumped Tennessee up one spot from last week to No. 4 and Marquette moved up two spots to round out the new-look top five.

Arizona, Kansas, Iowa State, North Carolina and Duke comprised the 6-10 spots in this week's poll.

Elsewhere in this week's poll, welcome to the stage, South Florida! USF joined the rankings not just for the first time this season, but for the first time ever, after a 79-68 home win vs. SMU Sunday propelled the Bulls to a 21-5 overall record. They are three wins shy of matching a program-best 24 wins, set in 2018-19, and joined the rankings at No. 25.