The top five of the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll remained unchanged Monday with defending national champ UConn still ahead of mighty Purdue, streaking North Carolina, defensive-minded Houston and Tennessee.
There was plenty of chaos in the rest of the poll, where 10 teams moved at least five positions one way or another.
The Huskies were still the clear No. 1, picking up four more first-place votes after a 99-56 rout of Xavier for their eighth straight win. They topped the poll on 48 of 63 ballots from the national panel of media, while the Boilermakers received 14 votes for No. 1 and the Cougars picked up the remaining one.
“I think last January helped us a lot,” UConn coach Danny Hurley said. “We went through an absolutely crushing month of January, so we go into games not necessarily afraid to lose. We walked through the fire and still dominated the NCAA Tournament last year.
“So in a weird way,” Hurley said, “we’re not afraid to drop a game, and we go out and we’re really attacking these games.”