College basketball rankings: Marquette’s No. 4, Indiana State in AP Top 25 for first time since Larry Bird era

The top two teams in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll remained unchanged Monday with UConn and Purdue holding steady at No. 1 and No. 2 for a fifth consecutive week, but a chunk of the rankings saw a shakeup after four of last week’s top-10 teams and 17 ranked teams in total took at least one loss in a chaotic week. 

The biggest beneficiary of the chaos was Marquette, which rose up three spots to No. 4, while Iowa State leapt four spots and snuck into the top-10 at No. 10.

Marquette jumped past Kansas, North Carolina and Tennessee, all of which took one loss last week, in its appearance back into the top-five of the AP poll for the first time since Week 4. The Golden Eagles held off a hungry St. John’s team at home Saturday to win their seventh consecutive game after opening the 2024 calendar year with an 0-2 record.

Arizona also moved up three spots and rejoined the top five — at No. 5 — for the first time since Week 8. After climbing to No. 1 in the AP poll earlier in the season, the Wildcats fell to as low as No. 12 before a big week with wins over Utah and Colorado propelled them back into the top five. They’ve won seven of their last eight games in Pac-12 play and are one game up in the conference regular-season race.

Elsewhere in the AP poll, MVC-leading Indiana State appeared in the rankings for the first time since the Larry Bird days in the late 1970s. The Sycamores ended their four-decade-long drought with an appearance at No. 23 in the poll this week following wins over Valpo and Missouri State to improve to 13-2 in MVC play and 22-3 overall..

1. UConn (45)

2. Purdue (16)

3. Houston

4. Marquette

5. Arizona

6. Kansas

7. North Carolina

8. Tennessee

9. Duke

10. Iowa State

1. South Carolina

12. Baylor

13. Auburn

14. Illinois

15. Alabama

16. Dayton

17. Creighton

18. Saint Mary’s

19. BYU

20. Wisconsin

21. Virginia

22. Kentucky

23. Indiana State

24. FAU

25. Oklahoma

Others receiving votes: Utah St. 160, Colorado St. 145, Texas Tech 111, San Diego St. 84, Washington St 82, Clemson 57, Nevada 57, Gonzaga 50, New Mexico 27, Florida 19, Michigan St. 17, Texas A&M 16, Grand Canyon 13, Mississippi 12, TCU 10, Texas 9, Memphis 8, South Florida 7, Northwestern 2, UNC Wilmington 1.