Updated AP Top 25 for College Basketball on Christmas Week

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•12/19/22

Saturday featured FIVE matchups between teams ranked in the top-16 of last week’s AP Top 25 Poll. That’s over half of the top 16 all playing each other on a random Saturday in December. What a weekend! With all the top flight matchups that took place Saturday and throughout the rest of the week, the poll was surely going to look a lot different this week.

So, amid the wreckage of an incredibly entertaining week of hoops, here’s how the associated press slated college basketball’s 25 best heading into Christmas Week:

Updated college basketball AP Top 25 Poll

  1. Purdue (11-0)
  2. UConn (12-0)
  3. Houston (11-1)
  4. Kansas (10-1)
  5. Arizona (10-1)
  6. Virginia (8-1)
  7. Texas (9-1)
  8. Tennessee (9-2)
  9. Alabama (9-2)
  10. Arkansas (10-1)
  11. Gonzaga (9-3)
  12. Baylor (8-2)
  13. UCLA (10-2)
  14. Duke (10-2)
  15. Mississippi State (11-0)
  16. Illinois (8-3)
  17. Wisconsin (9-2)
  18. Indiana (8-3)
  19. Kentucky (7-3)
  20. TCU (9-1)
  21. Virginia Tech (11-1)
  22. Miami FL (11-1)
  23. Auburn (9-2)
  24. Marquette (9-3)
  25. Arizona State (11-1)

Recap

The two undefeated titans, UCONN and Purdue, remain at the top with a slew of great wins while both are still undefeated. Then, it’s dealer’s choice with the rest of the top-10, consisting mostly of one-loss teams who have beaten one another. Such as: Houston went and beat Virginia on the road this week after losing at home to Alabama last weekend. But Virginia stays high because they beat UCLA and Baylor earlier in the year, two top-15 teams. Then Alabama fell to Gonzaga on a neutral court. Very confusing stuff in the top-10.

Elsewhere, Arizona State has snuck into the top-25! They fell to Texas Southern in a gross loss earlier in the year, but rebounded to get to 11-1 this past week, with wins over Michigan and Creighton to hang their hat on. From a resume perspective, Arizona State definitely deserve to be in the mix, and finally the AP Poll rewarded them. Good for Bobby Hurley’s group. And they’re actually playing some defense too!