Purdue is back atop The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll, right where it spent so much of last season.
The Boilermakers ascended to No. 1 on Monday after an impressive run through a loaded field at the Maui Invitational. They beat Gonzaga, Tennessee and Marquette — three of the top 11 teams in the nation — in consecutive days, and that was enough to earn 60 of 63 first-place votes from the national panel of Top 25 voters.
It took the Boilermakers until Dec. 12 to reach No. 1 last year, where they spent seven weeks over two different stints.
AP men’s basketball Top 25 poll
First-place votes in parenthesis:
Team Record
1. Purdue (60) 6-0
2. Arizona (1) 6-0
3. Marquette 5-1
4. UConn (2) 6-0
5. Kansas 5-1
6. Houston 7-0
7. Duke 5-1
8. Miami 5-0
9. Baylor 6-0
10. Tennessee 4-2
11. Gonzaga 4-1
12. Kentucky 5-1
13. Florida Atlantic 5-1
14. Texas A&M 6-1
15. Creighton 5-1
16. Texas 5-1
17. North Carolina 5-1
18. Villanova 6-1
19. BYU 6-0
20. Colorado State 6-0
21. Mississippi State 6-0
22. James Madison 6-0
23. Alabama 5-1
24. Illinois 5-1
25. Oklahoma 6-0