Purdue moved back to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll Monday ahead of Houston, which spent a single week there after leapfrogging the Boilermakers.
It’s hardly a two-team race for the top, though. UConn, Arizona and Duke also got No. 1 votes from the 61-member media panel in a poll that also saw No. 6 Louisville and No. 8 Illinois jump into the top 10.
The Boilermakers got 44 first-place votes after an impressive week that included a road win over then-No. 8 Alabama and a victory over Akron. Houston lost six of its No. 1 votes but still had 12 after beating Oakland and edging No. 22 Auburn in a matchup of Final Four teams from last season.
“We have a great group of guys,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter, who also picked up his 500th career win last weekend, “and just trying to go from one game to the other I think is really hard after you have such an emotional, big win on the road like we had.”
UConn remained No. 3 with three first-place votes after beating then-No. 7 BYU 86-84 on Saturday. That started a tough road for the Huskies that includes games against No. 4 Arizona on Wednesday and Illinois and No. 24 Kansas down the road.