Gonzaga remains at No. 1 in AP despite loss to No. 19 Gaels

The Zags lost their unanimous top seeded status but still received a majority of votes to stay at the top after a chaotic week of college hoops

seven of the top nine ranked teams in last weeks poll suffered losses over the weekend, leading to major shifts in the most recent AP poll. 

Gonzaga men’s basketball remains at No. 1 in the most recent AP poll despite suffering its first West Coast Conference loss in the team’s last 32 conference games. The Saint Mary’s Gaels, which handed GU (24-3, 13-1) its 10-point loss on Saturday, climbed up to No. 19 in the nation from being No. 23 last week.

In a chaotic weekend of college basketball action in which the top six teams all fell and seven of the top nine programs suffered losses, the newest polls sees some of the most drastic changes at the top.

Baylor (24-5, 12-4) had one of the biggest jumps in the rankings all season after going from No. 10 to 3 in this week’s poll. The Bears are getting back to the form that saw them hold the No. 1 spot for a handful of weeks earlier this season, and beat Kansas at home on Saturday to earn a high quality win.

With the loss in Waco, Kansas has fallen one spot to No. 6 this week. The Jayhawks weren’t the only top-rated BIG-12 program to take a tumble this week, as Texas Tech fell from ninth to 12th after losing to TCU on Saturday.

Other high ranking teams to drop as a result of a weekend loss were Auburn which is now No.5, Kentucky which fell one spot to No. 7 and Purdue which went all the way from No. 4 to 8 after losing to Michigan State at the buzzer. Other than GU, Arizona at No. 2 is the only other team in the top 10 to not have changed positions, despite losing to Colorado by 16 points.

The Duke Blue Devils (25-4, 15-3) posted two wins on the road last week against Virginia and Syracuse, and as a result rose three spots up to No. 4. The Blue Devils even received 11 of the votes for the No. 1 spot this week, while Baylor claimed four and Gonzaga picked up the remaining 46.

No teams cracked the top 25 in the most recent poll after not being included the previous week. After picking up quality wins over the weekend, SEC threats Tennessee and Arkansas each went up four positions to be at No. 13 and 14 respectively.