March Madness has arrived, and with it comes the insanity of the NCAA tournament.
Selection Sunday is merely days away, with a week of conference tournament games ahead of us. But first, the Associated Press has come out with a new top-25.
Gonzaga comes in as the No. 1 team in the country for the fourth consecutive week after having the week off following the conclusion of their regular season. Mark Few’s team plays the San Francisco Dons in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference tournament Monday night at 8:00 p.m. ET.
The Arizona Wildcats are the No. 2 team in the country for the third straight week after wins over Stanford and California. The Pac-12 champions will have to wait and see who they’ll play in their first game of the Pac-12 tournament on Thursday, when the Wildcats hope to secure a one-seed in the NCAA tournament.
“From where we started and where we are now, I didn’t expect that,” said Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, pointing to the Pac-12 championship trophy. “I just didn’t want to celebrate it early.”
The Baylor Bears, the defending national champions, come in at No. 3 for the second consecutive week after beating Iowa State 75-68, securing a share of the Big 12 regular season title.
“It’s really hard to win a game when you know you win, you’re a champion,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said after the celebration. “I didn’t even know about Kansas. I didn’t want to know. Now I’m not dumb, since if Texas would have won there would have been an announcement or someone would have said ‘Congrats!’”
“Last year, you like winning it with four games to go,” he continued. “This one had a little more drama in it. Made for TV.”
Auburn moves up to No. 4 and Kentucky jumps two spots to No. 5 following a 71-63 victory over Florida.
Duke drops three spots to No. 7 after their wildly disappointing loss the North Carolina in Mike Krzyzewski’s final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“I’m sorry about this afternoon … It’s unacceptable,” Coach K said after the loss. “Today was unacceptable. But the season has been very acceptable. And the season isn’t over.”
“I’m sorry about this afternoon. … Today was unacceptable."#CoachK was as raw as it comes addressing the crowd postgame. pic.twitter.com/kia6tqbcmn
— ESPN (@espn) March 6, 2022
Villanova, Purdue and Tennessee round out the top ten — the Vols and the Boilermakers are tied for the number nine spot in the country. It’s the first time Tennessee has cracked the top-10 this season.
“It’s been hard, I can tell you,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said of the SEC after beating Arkansas. “I think we’ve been able to learn from a lot. I think we’ll learn from today. And we need to, because now you’re in tournament play. If you have letups and keep throwing lifelines at the wrong time, it ends your season.”
The complete Associated Press Top-25 can be seen below.
- Gonzaga
- Arizona
- Baylor
- Auburn
- Kentucky
- Kansas
- Duke
- Villanova
- Purdue (tied for ninth)
- Tennessee (tied for ninth)
- Providence
- Wisconsin
- UCLA
- Texas Tech
- Arkansas
- Illinois
- St. Mary’s
- Houston
- Murray State
- Connecticut
- USC (Southern California)
- Texas
- Colorado State
- Iowa
- North Carolina
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].