The Houston men’s basketball team jumped up one spot to No. 1 in Monday’s latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Men’s college basketball has a new top-ranked team.
Houston, two days after knocking off then-No. 11 Baylor 82-76 on the road in overtime, jumped up one spot to No. 1 in Monday’s latest Associated Press (AP) Top 25 poll. Purdue came in at No. 2, followed by defending champion UConn, which had occupied the top spot in each of the six previous weeks before a 19-point loss to then-No. 15 Creighton on Tuesday, at No. 3. And so continues a three-squad battle to be ranked as the sport’s best team by AP.
With only a few weeks before Selection Sunday, the Cougars, Boilermakers and Huskies have separated themselves from the rest of the basketball pack. Each team has been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll over the last two months—not that the poll necessarily translates to the selection committee’s thinking—and all three schools received first-place votes this week.
These programs are safely on the one-seed line in the coming bracket mania. All of them have a justifiable case for the top overall seed. But which team might have the edge?
As the regular season winds down and conference tournaments approach, take a look at how Houston, Purdue and UConn stack up, utilizing some of the key criteria the NCAA Tournament selection committee is likely to look at.
NET Ranking: No. 1
Quad 1 Record: 7-3
BPI Ranking: No. 1
KPI Ranking: No. 2
BartTorvik Ranking: No. 1
Strength of Schedule: 27th
KenPom Ranking: No. 1 (16th-ranked offense, top defense)
ESPN Bracketology Prediction: Third No. 1 seed, South Region
Houston rising to No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time this season backs up what the computers have been saying for weeks. The Cougars have been the top-ranked team in the Ken Pomeroy rankings since the start of December, and also own the premier position in the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool), BPI (ESPN’s Basketball Power Index) and BartTorvik metrics.
