Associated Press Top 25 basketball poll: Jerry Carino's ballot
1. Gonzaga (14-2)
2. Auburn (16-1)
3. Arizona (14-1)
4. Purdue (14-2)
5. UCLA (11-2)
6. Baylor (15-2)
7. Duke (14-2)
8. Kansas (14-2)
9. Wisconsin (14-2)
10. Villanova (13-4)
11. Houston (15-2)
12. Kentucky (14-3)
13. Michigan State (14-3)
14. Iowa State (14-3)
15. LSU (15-2)
16. Texas Tech (13-4)
17. Southern Cal (14-2)
18. Xavier (13-3)
19. Ohio State (11-4)
20. Illinois (13-3)
21. Texas (13-4)
22. Providence (14-2)
23. Tennessee (11-5)
24. Connecticut (11-4)
25. Loyola-Chicago (13-2)
Dropped out: No. 20 Seton Hall (11-5) after losses to DePaul and Marquette; No. 24 Alabama (11-6), which I didn’t vote for last week, after a loss to Auburn.
Entered: Connecticut and Loyola-Chicago, both of which I voted for last week. Since then, UConn beat St. John’s and Loyola-Chicago went 2-0.
Also considered: BYU (15-4), San Diego State (10-3).
Analysis: The big question of the week is who should be No. 1 after Baylor lost twice. Gonzaga and Auburn are the candidates. It’s going to be Gonzaga because the Bulldogs were No. 2, have wins over UCLA, Texas and Texas Tech, and in this voter’s opinion look like the slightly better team (no offense to Auburn, which is excellent). For what it’s worth (not a ton to me, but still), even the analytics geeks like them better, by a lot. The worst argument is that Auburn beat Alabama while Gonzaga lost to the Tide. That’s not how this works. Transitive property is a poor way to rank teams, and Alabama has the most bizarre Jekyll-and-Hyde resume in the nation — they are nobody’s measuring stick.
The big riser is Kentucky, which climbs six spots after beating Vanderbilt and throttling No. 22 Tennessee…the big loser is USC, which tumbles 12 spots after falling to Stanford and Oregon.
By conference: Big 12 (5), Big Ten (5), Big East (4), SEC (4), Pac-12 (3), ACC (1), American (1), Missouri Valley (1), West Coast (1).
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Associated Press Top 25 basketball poll: Jerry Carino's ballot
