Purdue reclaims No. 1 spot in AP Top 25 men's basketball poll - ESPN

Purdue moved back to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll Monday ahead of Houston, which spent a single week there after leapfrogging the Boilermakers.

It's hardly a two-team race for the top, though. UConn, Arizona and Duke also got No. 1 votes from the 61-member media panel in a poll that also saw No. 6 Louisville and No. 8 Illinois jump into the top 10.

First-place votes in parentheses.

The Boilermakers got 44 first-place votes after an impressive week that included a road win over then-No. 8 Alabama and a victory over Akron. Houston lost six of its No. 1 votes but still had 12 after beating Oakland and edging No. 22 Auburn in a matchup of Final Four teams from last season.

«We have a great group of guys,» said Purdue coach Matt Painter, who also picked up his 500th career win last weekend, «and just trying to go from one game to the other I think is really hard after you have such an emotional, big win on the road like we had.»

UConn remained No. 3 with three first-place votes after beating then-No. 7 BYU 86-84 on Saturday. That started a tough road for the Huskies that includes games against No. 4 Arizona on Wednesday and Illinois and No. 24 Kansas down the road.

The Wildcats swapped spots with Duke this week, moving up with two first-place votes thanks in part to a win over then-No. 15 UCLA. The Blue Devils received the remaining No. 1 vote ahead of their game against the Jayhawks on Tuesday night.

Louisville tied for the biggest climb in the Top 25, moving up six spots after beating then-No. 9 Kentucky 96-88 last week. Michigan fell one spot to seventh while Big Ten rival Illinois also moved up six spots. BYU dropped two spots after its loss to the Huskies, while defending national champion Florida