Missouri Surges Into Men's AP Top 25; Top Five Remain Unchanged

The Tigers are coming off a big win over Border War rival Illinois. The Illini and Duke are among the teams that dropped.

Gonzaga, Baylor, and Iowa remain atop the men's college basketball AP Top 25 in this week's poll.

The top five overall was unchanged from the Dec. 7 ranking, with Michigan State and Kansas rounding things out for the second straight week. Houston moved up to No. 6 after last week's sixth-ranked team, Illinois, split its games with a win at Duke and a loss to rival Missouri.

The 5–0 Tigers made the biggest leap of the week after that win, going from unranked to No. 16. Clemson (No. 24) and Michigan (No. 25) were also new additions to the poll this week; the former beat Maryland and Alabama to crack the Top 25 for the first time in 2020–21.

After a home loss to Illinois, the 2–2 Blue Devils dropped out of the top 10 all the way to 21st—the biggest drop of any team this week. Last week, Duke announced that, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, it will not play any more nonconference games this season and will prepare for its ACC opener.

The full men's AP Top 25 is below (as of Dec. 14):

1. Gonzaga
2. Baylor
3. Iowa
4. Michigan State
5. Kansas
6. Houston
7. Villanova
8. West Virginia
9. Creighton
10. Tennessee
11. Texas
12. Wisconsin
13. Illinois
14. Texas Tech
15. Florida State
16. Missouri
17. Virginia
18. San Diego State
19. Rutgers
20. Ohio State
21. Duke
22. North Carolina
23. Louisville
24. Clemson
25. Michigan

Others receiving votes: Richmond 140, Saint Louis 121, Virginia Tech 115, Xavier 55, Oklahoma State 48, Oregon 31, Indiana 22, Florida 18, Arizona State 13, UCLA 9, UConn 7, Arizona 5, Syracuse 4, Georgia 4, Arkansas 4, SMU 1, Minnesota 1.