Men's Basketball AP Poll: UCLA Plummets to New Low After Winless Weekend

For the first time all year, the Bruins have stumbled outside the top 10 thanks to their losses to Arizona and Arizona State.
Men's Basketball AP Poll: UCLA Plummets to New Low After Winless Weekend
Men's Basketball AP Poll: UCLA Plummets to New Low After Winless Weekend /

The national media has hopped off the Bruins' bandwagon.

UCLA men's basketball (16-4, 8-3 Pac-12) fell all the way from No. 3 to No. 12 in the latest edition of the AP Poll on Monday. The Bruins did not receive a single first-place vote and totaled 881 points.

This is the first poll all season that has placed UCLA outside the top 10.

After entering the week on a six-game winning streak, sitting atop the Pac-12 standings, UCLA lost to Arizona on Thursday after beating them at home 10 days earlier. The struggles continued on the second leg of the road trip, as the Bruins managed to stay alive for three overtimes before falling to Arizona State, which had just one win in its previous seven contests.

Auburn held onto No. 1 while Gonzaga still stole away a few first-place votes as the No. 2 team. The Tigers have now been the top team in the nation for three-straight weeks, quite the accomplishment considering how much turnover there has been in that position since the end of November.

Around the Pac-12, Arizona moved up from No. 7 to No. 4 after beating UCLA and narrowly defeating USC. The Trojans, meanwhile, moved from No. 19 to 21. The Bruins, Wildcats and Trojans remain the only teams in the conference in the top 25, while Oregon returned to the receiving votes section as it pushes for a bubble spot in the NCAA tournament.

UCLA won't get another crack at Arizona until the Pac-12 tournament should the bracket set the two up for a rubber match, but USC is on the slate for Saturday and the Bruins play unranked Stanford on Tuesday.

The full AP poll is as follows, complete with records and first-place votes:

1. Auburn, 22-1 (48 first-place votes)
2. Gonzaga, 19-2 (13 first-place votes)
3. Purdue, 19-3
4. Arizona, 19-2
5. Kentucky, 19-4
6. Houston, 20-2
7. Duke, 19-3
8. Kansas, 19-3
9. Texas Tech, 18-5
10. Baylor, 19-4
11. Providence, 20-2
12. UCLA, 16-4
13. Illinois, 17-5
14. Wisconsin, 18-4
15. Villanova, 17-6
16. Ohio State, 14-5
17. Michigan State, 17-5
18. Marquette, 16-7
19. Tennessee, 16-6
20. Texas, 17-6
21. USC, 19-4
22. St. Mary’s, 19-4
23. Murray State, 22-2
24. UConn, 15-6
25. Xavier, 16-6

Others receiving votes: Wyoming 82, Arkansas 74, Iowa State 48, Davidson 35, Boise State 22, Wake Forest 21, Alabama 18, Loyola Chicago 13, LSU 11, Indiana 11, Iowa 7, Oregon 5, San Francisco 3, Notre Dame 3, Ohio 2

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon was the Publisher and Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s All Bruins from 2021 to 2023. He is now a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s Fastball. He previously covered UCLA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country and golf for The Daily Bruin from 2017 to 2021, serving as the paper's Sports Editor from 2019 to 2020. Connon has also been a contributor for 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' BruinBlitz, Dash Sports TV, SuperWestSports, Prime Time Sports Talk, The Sports Life Blog and Patriots Country, Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s New England Patriots site. His work as a sports columnist has been awarded by the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon graduated from UCLA in June 2021 and is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.