Auburn Stays At No. 1, Kentucky Remains No. 5, Tennessee Up to 19, 1-6 LSU Out of A.P. Poll

Auburn remained the No. 1 college basketball team in the country for the third straight week on Monday in the Associated Press poll after it won its 19th straight game on Saturday against Georgia.

The Tigers (22-1, 10-0 SEC) could be tested Tuesday night though, as they play at Arkansas (18-5, 7-3 SEC), which has won eight straight and received votes for the poll. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. eastern on ESPN at Bud Walton Arena, which is expected to be filled with 19,200.

Kentucky (19-4, 8-2) kept two teams in the top five of the poll as it remained at No. 5 following its fourth straight win Saturday at Alabama. The Wildcats play at South Carolina Tuesday (7 p.m., ESPN).

Tennessee (16-6, 7-3), which has won five straight, jumped from No. 22 to No. 19 after its fifth straight win on Saturday over South Carolina.

LSU (16-7, 4-6) dropped out of the poll from No. 25 as it has lost six of seven games. The Tigers lost to two teams in the bottom part of the SEC last week, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss.

Gonzaga (19-2) was No. 2 in the poll, followed by No. 3 Purdue (20-3), No. 4 Arizona (19-2), No. 6 Houston (20-2), No. 7 Duke (19-3), No. 8 Kansas (19-3), No. 9 Texas Tech (18-5), which moved from No. 14, and No. 10 Baylor (19-4).

The second 10 had No. 11 Providence, No. 12 UCLA, which dropped from No. 3 after an 87-84 loss in triple overtime to 7-13 and 3-7 Arizona State, No. 13 Illinois, No. 14 Wisconsin, No. 15 Villanova, No. 16 Ohio State, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 18 Marquette and No. 20 Texas.

USC was No. 21. Saint Mary's (19-4) and Murray State (22-2) were new entries to the poll at No. 22 and No. 23. Connecticut and Xavier were Nos. 24 and 25.

Written by
Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.