For the first time in two months, there’s a new No. 1 in the AP Poll as the Duke Blue Devils have captured the top spot. Auburn drops to No. 3 after losing at home to Alabama on Saturday and Texas A&M on Tuesday, and Houston goes to No. 2 after a clean week with wins against Kansas and Baylor. This is the correct top-three, as Duke is the most dominant team in the country and has the most wins in the top 25. Auburn has now lost to Texas A&M and Alabama in the past two weeks, unlike Houston who hasn’t lost since Feb. 1.

Two more SEC teams come in at No. 4 and No. 5 with Florida and Alabama both moving up. Alabama jumped St. John’s, who stayed at No. 6. After their win at Auburn, the Tide moving up was a must.

Tennessee fell four spots to No. 8. The Volunteers lost to Ole Miss on the road by two this past week, which is the reason why they dropped. I will nitpick here and say they should be swapped with Michigan State at No. 7, who are not the better team but took down Michigan at home on Sunday, which is the reason they are higher. Tennessee in the past few weeks has taken down Texas A&M and Alabama, some huge wins that keep them ahead of Michigan State for me.

Speaking of A&M, they have been bipolar in this poll the past few weeks. After falling 10 spots last week, they are up eight spots this week, back to No. 14. They took down Auburn and LSU this week. This is a big jump, and I understand because they took down the No. 1 team, but they lost four games before that, so this jump seems a little much for me. Kentucky, who won on the road against Missouri, Memphis (who has been so dominant), and BYU, who has been on fire as of late, should be above them.

BYU and Wisconsin come in at No. 17 and No. 18. BYU is up six spots, and Wisconsin is down six. BYU has been on fire, picking up a huge road win against Iowa State, and should be higher, as I said before. They have now won eight in a row, taking down Kansas, as well as Arizona and Iowa State on the road; they are legit. Wisconsin, on the other hand, has been inconsistent as of late, losing to Oregon, Michigan State, and Penn State. I would have dropped them maybe one spot below Saint Mary’s (who has been great) but no lower.

Missouri and Michigan are big fallers at the bottom of the poll. Missouri dropped six spots to No. 21, and Michigan dropped five spots to No. 22. Missouri had a bad loss at home to Kentucky as they were dominated all night; they have now lost three in a row, two to unranked teams, and I would have dropped them further down to No. 24 below Illinois. Three losses in a row should be a huge drop-off in the rankings, and I don’t think six spots are enough.

Michigan, who everyone thinks is going to be upset in the first round of the tournament, lost this week to Maryland and Michigan State. They have also now lost three in a row, and I would have dropped them from the rankings altogether. I think they have been too inconsistent as of late and could have put Drake at No. 25, who punched their ticket to the tournament on Sunday and finished the season with 30 wins, which is the most in college basketball this year. They deserved to be ranked.

Lastly, Marquette dropped five spots to No. 25. I have talked about the Golden Eagles a lot in my reactions and have said they’ve been too inconsistent, and this week they lost on a buzzer-beater at home to St John’s. Like I said before, I think Drake should be ranked and that’s the only team that could be here instead of them this week. I am interested to see if Marquette can get their act together in the Big East tournament and have some momentum heading into the big dance after the inconsistency all year.

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