The top three spots remain unchanged but preseason No. 1 North Carolina dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll released Monday.
Houston (8-0), Texas (6-0) and Virginia (7-0) remained atop the rankings. The Cougars earned 37 first-place votes compared to 14 for Texas, three for the Cavaliers and eight for No. 4 Purdue (8-0).
UConn (9-0) moved up three spots to No. 5, its highest ranking since early in the 2011-12 season.
Kansas (8-1), Tennessee (7-1), Alabama (7-1), Arkansas (7-1) and Arizona (7-1) round out the Top 10. The Wildcats dropped six spots after a loss to Utah this past week.
But the story is the scuffling Tar Heels, who are in the throes of a four-game losing streak after a loss at Virginia Tech on Sunday. North Carolina dropped to 5-4. The Heels are just the sixth team to go from preseason No. 1 to unranked. Michigan State (2019-20) was the last.
Maryland was the week’s biggest climber, vaulting nine spots to No. 13 on the heels of a conference win over Illinois. Creighton fell 14 spots to No. 21.
Joining North Carolina in falling out of the Top 25 was Michigan State, which suffered losses to Notre Dame and Northwestern.
Mississippi State (8-0) and TCU (6-1) debuted in the poll at Nos. 23 and 24, respectively.
The rest of the poll:
No. 11 Auburn
No. 12 Baylor
No. 13 Maryland
No. 14 Indiana
No. 15 Duke
No. 16 Kentucky
No. 17 Illinois
No. 18 Gonzaga
No. 19 UCLA
No. 20 Iowa State
No. 21 Creighton
No. 22 San Diego State
No. 23 Mississippi State
No. 24 TCU
No. 25 Ohio State
–Field Level Media