{"id":44497,"date":"2025-11-11T06:28:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44497\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T06:28:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:28:31","slug":"ap-top-25-houston-takes-top-spot-from-purdue-in-college-basketball-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44497\/","title":{"rendered":"AP Top 25: Houston takes top spot from Purdue in college basketball rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first in-season AP Top 25 poll of the 2025-26 college basketball season was released Monday, and we already have a new No. 1 team. Houston<\/a> jumped Purdue<\/a> to assume the No. 1 spot in the latest poll despite receiving just 18 first-place votes.<\/p>\n

Purdue struggled during its second game of the season but held on for an 87-77 win over Oakland<\/a>. The Boilermakers’ first test of the season will come against No. 8 Alabama<\/a> on Thursday. Six different teams received at least one first-place vote in the poll.<\/p>\n

That wasn’t the only shakeup in the top 10 after reigning national champion Florida<\/a> lost to Arizona<\/a> and St. John’s<\/a> was on the wrong side of an upset loss against Alabama.<\/p>\n

Florida dropped seven spots to No. 10, while St. John’s fell from No. 5 to No. 13 in the poll. Alabama moved up to No. 8 after recording a statement win over the Red Storm at Madison Square Garden behind\u00a0a standout performance by star guard Labaron Philon<\/a>. Arizona leapfrogged Florida and moved to No. 5.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Late decision by Labaron Philon to return to Alabama pays off in early season upset vs. St. John’s<\/p>\n

\n Cameron Salerno <\/p>\n

\"Late<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the risers into the top five was Duke<\/a>. The Blue Devils jumped two spots to No. 4 after a win over Texas<\/a> in the first game of the Cameron Boozer<\/a> era. UConn<\/a> moved up one spot to No. 3 after blowout wins over New Haven<\/a> and UMass Lowell<\/a> to open the season.<\/p>\n

Arkansas<\/a> dropped seven spots after losing to Michigan State on the road in one of the marquee ranked-on-ranked matchups of the opening week of the season. The Razorbacks checked in at No. 21 this week.<\/p>\n

The full AP Top 25 rankings after the second week of the season are below.<\/p>\n

AP Top 25\u00a0<\/p>\n

1. Houston (18)
2. Purdue (36)
3. UConn (3)
4. Duke (2)
5. Arizona
6. Michigan<\/a> (1)
7. BYU<\/a>
8. Alabama (1)
9. Kentucky<\/a>
10. Florida
11. Texas Tech<\/a>
12. Louisville<\/a>
13. St. John’s
14. Illinois<\/a>
15. UCLA<\/a>
16. Iowa State<\/a>
17. Michigan State
18. North Carolina<\/a>
19. Gonzaga<\/a>
20. Tennessee<\/a>
21. Arkansas
22. Auburn<\/a>
23. Creighton<\/a>
24. Wisconsin<\/a>
25. Kansas<\/a><\/p>\n

Others receiving votes:\u00a0NC State<\/a> 87, San Diego State<\/a> 67, Indiana<\/a> 45, Oregon<\/a> 43, Vanderbilt<\/a> 37, Ohio State<\/a> 17, Baylor<\/a> 14, USC<\/a> 12, Kansas State<\/a> 5, Missouri<\/a> 4, Ole Miss<\/a> 4, Mississippi State<\/a> 3, Georgia<\/a> 2, Stanford<\/a> 1, Oklahoma State<\/a> 1, Texas 1, Georgetown<\/a> 1, Utah State<\/a> 1, Iowa<\/a> 1, Virginia Tech<\/a> 1.<\/p>\n

Voters go with Houston over Purdue at No. 1<\/p>\n

The biggest surprise of the week was seeing Houston jump to No. 1. It happened despite Houston taking care of business against opponents it should beat and Purdue not losing a game. The fact that the Boilermakers dropped already could be a sign of the parity that is yet to come. Purdue struggled against Oakland. That’s no secret. However, in Purdue’s defense, it was playing without preseason All-American Trey Kaufman-Renn<\/a>. Still, Purdue should have been able to take care of business handily at home.<\/p>\n

Houston was a popular choice from voters heading into the season for the top spot. Houston received the second-most first-place votes (16) and would’ve been a logical choice for No. 1. However, Purdue got the nod. The Boilermakers have a key game against Alabama later this week. If Purdue wins that game, it wouldn’t be surprising if the polls flipped again.<\/p>\n

North Carolina gets boost after big win over Kansas<\/p>\n

One of the biggest winners of the opening week of the season was North Carolina. The Tar Heels picked up a massive home win over Kansas to move to 2-0. Freshman forward Caleb Wilson<\/a> had another standout performance as he continues to establish himself as one of the best first-year players in the sport.<\/p>\n

With the win, the Tar Heels jumped seven spots in the poll to No. 18, while Kansas dropped all the way to No. 25. The only team that had a bigger jump than UNC in the poll was Arizona (eight spots).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Put Caleb Wilson among nation’s top freshmen as well after UNC’s win vs. Kansas in early blue-blood battle<\/p>\n

\n Isaac Trotter <\/p>\n

\"Put<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nSEC, Big 12, Big Ten dominate rankings<\/p>\n

Six teams from the SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten are ranked in the second poll of the season. That would account for 72% of teams in the rankings. The ACC and Big East each have three teams in the latest poll.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Big 12 has three teams (Houston, Arizona and BYU) ranked in the top seven, while the SEC has three teams in the top 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first in-season AP Top 25 poll of the 2025-26 college basketball season was released Monday, and we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[778,20926,2698,2747,2746,3689,794,26072,14864,26069,26074,10527,2692,26068,6625,4855,2768,19646,4857,2740,2745,26077,782,4861,56,2742,58,57,763,768,2706,4860,10524,2764,789,538,2765,5310,4856,14819,798,774,795,2750,787,9817,26070,26071,766,26076,9819,26075,781,9820,797,769,2769,791,10525,5024,4858,2696,783,790,260,537,415,3117,792,26078,767,5322,796,26073,762,9815,4859],"class_list":["post-44497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-ap-poll","tag-arizona-wildcats","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-baylor-bears","tag-byu-cougars","tag-caleb-wilson","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-cbb-rankings","tag-chattanooga-mocs","tag-clemson-tigers","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-rankings","tag-colorado-buffaloes","tag-connecticut-huskies","tag-creighton-bluejays","tag-drake-bulldogs","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-florida-atlantic-owls","tag-florida-gators","tag-georgetown-hoyas","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-houston","tag-houston-cougars","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-iowa-hawkeyes","tag-iowa-state-cyclones","tag-james-madison-dukes","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-kansas-state-wildcats","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-labaron-philon","tag-liberty-flames","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-marquette-golden-eagles","tag-memphis-tigers","tag-miami-fla-hurricanes","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-mississippi-state-bulldogs","tag-missouri-tigers","tag-nc-state-wolfpack","tag-ncaa-basketball-rankings","tag-ncaab-rankings","tag-nevada-wolf-pack","tag-new-haven-chargers","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-oakland-golden-grizzlies","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-oklahoma-state-cowboys","tag-ole-miss-rebels","tag-oregon-ducks","tag-princeton-tigers","tag-purdue-boilermakers","tag-san-diego-state-aztecs","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-st-johns-red-storm","tag-stanford-cardinal","tag-tcu-horned-frogs","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-am-aggies","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-trey-kaufman-renn","tag-ucla-bruins","tag-umass-lowell-river-hawks","tag-usc-trojans","tag-utah-state-aggies","tag-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-villanova-wildcats","tag-virginia-cavaliers","tag-virginia-tech-hokies","tag-wisconsin-badgers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}