College basketball rankings: Auburn moves up to tie Gonzaga for No. 1 in Coaches Poll

The Tigers and Bulldogs share the top spot in the updated Coaches Poll

By David Cobb

Jan 31, 2022 at 12:42 pm ET • 1 min read

USATSI

Auburn and Gonzaga tied for No. 1 in the Coaches Poll on Monday with 16 first-place votes apiece after Gonzaga held an 18-13 edge in last week's poll with one first-place vote going to Arizona. While Auburn is the solo No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll for the second straight week, voters in the Coaches Poll voters have been slower to get on board with the Tigers.

However, Monday's poll is evidence that coaches voting in the poll are slowly coming around on coach Bruce Pearl's squad, which improved to 20-1 with wins at Missouri and over Oklahoma last week. Auburn is headed toward a huge game with in-state rival Alabama on Tuesday, while Gonzaga must play on the road against BYU on Saturday.

Perhaps one of those two games will provide some clarity for the Coaches Poll voters on who the true No. 1 team is next week. But for now, it's a stalemate -- the first tie at the top since the 2015-2016 preseason poll had Kentucky and North Carolina tied at the top.

Other movement in the poll included Purdue rising three spots to No. 3 and UCLA rising four spots to No. 4 after the Bruins knocked off Arizona. The Wildcats fell just two spots to No. 5 in the Coaches Poll, despite tumbling to No. 7 in the AP poll. The Bruins and Wildcats are set for a rematch on Thursday.

Kentucky rose six spots to No. 7 following its decisive win at Kansas but was two spots higher in the AP poll. Kansas dropped five spots to No. 10. Entering the Coaches Poll this week at No. 24 was Marquette, which made it in despite a 65-63 loss at Providence on Sunday that ended its seven-game winning streak.