Purdue nearly became the unanimous No. 1 team in the latest AP Top 25 after earning 60 of a possible 61 first-place votes in the latest poll on Monday. The Boilermakers retained their standing atop the rankings for a fourth consecutive week after handling business in their lone outing the last week with an 82-49 shellacking of Florida A&M at home on Thursday.
UConn, which suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday at Xavier, earned the only outstanding first-place vote in the poll but fell two spots in the ranking from No. 2 to No. 4 this week. The slip benefited Houston and Kansas which each moved up one spot to No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. UConn and Arizona rounded out this week's top five.
The rest of the top 10 stayed fairly stagnant this week aside from Arkansas falling four spots from No. 9 to No. 13. Texas held steady at No. 6 and Alabama, Tennessee, Gonzaga and UCLA comprised the final top 10 of Week 9.
Elsewhere in the poll this week, College of Charleston under Pat Kelsey cracked the rankings at No. 23 for the first time since a brief appearance in the 2002-03 season. Charleston is off to a 14-1 start to its season and has won 13 consecutive games after falling to reigning national runner-up North Carolina on Nov. 11.
Meanwhile, North Carolina, ranked as the preseason No. 1, fell out of the rankings again this week after briefly breaking back into the poll at No. 25 last week. UNC fell on the road at Pitt on Friday to fall to 1-2 in ACC play to open the season, its worst start in league play since the 2020-21 season.
AP Top 25
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Sunday, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week's ranking:
| Rank | Team | Record | Points | Prev. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Purdue (60) | 13-0 | 1,524 | 1 |
| 2 | Houston | 14-1 | 1,417 | 3 |
| 3 | Kansas | 12-1 | 1,351 | 4 |
| 4 | UConn (1) | 14-1 | 1,342 | 2 |
| 5 | Arizona | 13-1 | 1,334 | 5 |
| 6 | Texas | 12-1 | 1,185 | 6 |
| 7 | Alabama | 11-2 | 1,132 | 8 |
| 8 | Tennessee | 11-2 | 1,114 | 7 |
| 9 | Gonzaga | 12-3 | 1,003 | 10 |
| 10 | UCLA | 13-2 | 993 | 11 |
| 11 | Virginia | 10-2 | 926 | 13 |
| 12 | Miami (Fla.) | 13-1 | 814 | 14 |
| 13 | Arkansas | 11-2 | 717 | 9 |
| 14 | Wisconsin | 10-2 | 639 | 15 |
| 15 | Indiana | 10-3 | 558 | 16 |
| 16 | Duke | 11-3 | 554 | 17 |
| 17 | TCU | 12-1 | 545 | 18 |
| 18 | Xavier | 12-3 | 531 | T-22 |
| 19 | Baylor | 10-3 | 520 | 12 |
| 20 | Missouri | 12-1 | 329 | NR |
| 21 | New Mexico | 14-0 | 290 | T-22 |
| 22 | Auburn | 11-2 | 287 | 20 |
| 23 | Charleston | 14-1 | 116 | NR |
| 24 | Ohio State | 10-3 | 114 | NR |
| 25 | Iowa State | 10-2 | 94 | NR |
Others receiving votes: LSU 83, San Diego State 72, Mississippi State 62, Kentucky 53, Kansas St 41, Illinois 21, Marquette 20, Providence 14, Virginia Tech 7, Memphis 6, Michigan State 5, West Virginia 5, FAU 3, Saint Mary's (Cal) 3, Creighton 1.
