Auburn Basketball Still Not No. 1, But Tigers No. 2 Behind Gonzaga

Published|Updated

Auburn climbed two spots to No. 2 in the nation in the latest Associated Press men's college basketball poll released Monday, but it still has never been No. 1 in the nation.

Gonzaga (14-2) grabbed that top spot after jumping from No. 2 with previous No. 1 and defending national champion Baylor (15-2) dropping to No. 5 after losses to Texas Tech and Oklahoma State last week. Gonzaga defeated Brigham Young and Santa Clara.

Arizona (14-1) rose to No. 3 from No. 6 with Purdue (14-2) at No. 4.

Auburn (16-1) has the most wins in the nation and moved to No. 1 in the CBS Sports poll, but two road wins at No. 24 Alabama and at Ole Miss were not enough. The Tigers are No. 2 in the A.P. poll for the first time since Feb. 22, 1999.

Other SEC teams ranked were No. 12 Kentucky (14-3), which jumped from No. 18 after winning 78-66 at Vanderbilt and blitzing No. 22 Tennessee 107-79 last week, and LSU (15-2) at No. 13. The Tigers dropped one spot after a home loss to Arkansas on Saturday that followed a win at Florida.

Tennessee (11-5) dropped two spots to No. 24. Alabama (11-6) dropped from No. 24 to out of the poll after three straight losses.

The rest of the top 10 had Duke (14-2) at No. 6, Kansas (14-2) at No. 7, Wisconsin (14-2) at No. 8, UCLA (11-2) at No. 9 and Houston (15-2) at No. 10. UCLA fell from No. 3 after an 84-81 overtime loss to Oregon.

The second 10 had Villanova, Kentucky, LSU, Michigan State and Iowa State at No. 11 through No. 15 with USC, Illinois, Texas Tech, Ohio State and Xavier from No. 16 through No. 20.

Providence was No. 21, followed by Loyola-Chicago, Texas, Tennessee and Connecticut.

Tags
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.