College basketball rankings: Duke jumps to No. 1 for first time since 2021, Houston No. 2 in AP Top 25

Duke ascended to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll for the first time since Week 4 of the 2021-22 season on Monday and for the first time under third-year coach Jon Scheyer. The Blue Devils’ rise supplanted Auburn, which spent eight consecutive weeks at No. 1, for the top spot. The Tigers slipped to No. 3 after taking two losses in their two outings this week to Texas A&M and Alabama to precipitate the big change. Houston moved up to No. 2.

Duke had been ranked No. 2 the previous two weeks and for five of the last seven weeks waited in the shadows for a potential Auburn slip-up. When Auburn lost to Florida on Feb. 8, however, Duke also lost the same day to Clemson, which kept Auburn at No. 1 in the next poll with a stripping of its unanimous status by voters.

Auburn’s two-game slide this week came as Duke rolled with ease into postseason play with wins over Wake Forest and North Carolina by 33 and 13 points, respectively. It enters ACC Tournament play this week having won 24 of its last 25 games, culminating with Monday’s move up one spot to No. 1 in the rankings.

The 0-2 week pushed Auburn off the No. 1 spot down to No. 3 and snapped a streak of 14 consecutive weeks of being ranked inside the top two in the AP poll. The Tigers extended a streak of eighteen weeks of being ranked inside the top five dating back to the preseason poll when it was No. 11. No other team has been ranked in the top five for every in-season poll this season, and the last teams to do so — Purdue and UConn in 2023-24 — were the last two teams standing in the NCAA championship last season.

AP Top 25 

1. Duke (52)
2. Houston (5)
3. Auburn (4)
4. Florida
5. Alabama
6. St. John’s
7. Michigan State
8. Tennessee
9. Texas Tech
10. Clemson
11. Maryland
12. Iowa St.
13. Louisville
14. Texas A&M
15. Kentucky
16. Memphis
17. BYU
18. Wisconsin
19. Saint Mary’s
20. Purdue
21. Missouri
22. Michigan
23. Oregon
24. Illinois
25. Marquette  

Also receiving votes: Drake 103, Arizona 82, UCLA 52, UC San Diego 39, UConn 38, Gonzaga 28, New Mexico 20, Creighton 18, Mississippi 17, VCU 6, High Point 4, Kansas 3, Akron 2, McNeese St. 1, Xavier 1.

Scheyer has Duke at No. 1 for first time

Mike Krzyżewski led Duke to its first No. 1 ranking of his tenure in Week 15 of the 1985-86 season — six seasons after taking the job in 1980. His successor, Jon Scheyer, has done it in his third season, with Monday’s movement getting Duke to No. 1. 

St. John’s surges into postseason

Just when the dream season for St. John’s seemingly couldn’t get better, it does. The Johnnies remained at No. 6 in the latest poll but are threatening to move into the top five, which hasn’t happened since January 1991, after matching a program record for regular season wins with 27 this week following an overtime win over Marquette at the buzzer. 

Houston leaps Auburn

In one of the bigger surprises of the latest poll, Auburn fell not one spot but two, as both Duke and Houston leapfrogged the Tigers. Duke’s jump was overwhelming but Houston’s was by a narrow margin, with it earning 1,427 total points to Auburn’s 1,407 in the vote. Houston also earned five first-place votes to Auburn’s four.