UConn No. 1 in AP poll for 1st time since 2009, Gonzaga falls out - ESPN

Connecticut has followed last year's run to the NCAA championship with its first No. 1 ranking in The Associated Press men's college basketball poll in nearly 15 years, while Gonzaga has fallen out of the AP Top 25 for the first time in eight years.

The Huskies moved to the top of Monday's latest poll after a tumultuous and upset-filled week across the sport, which included five new teams jumping into the poll. UConn claimed 39 of 63 first-place votes to climb three spots and replace Purdue at the top after the Boilermakers' loss at Nebraska dropped them to No. 2.

First-place votes in parenthesis:

This marks the first time UConn has hit No. 1 in the AP Top 25 since spending four weeks there in the second half of the 2008-09 season, which ended with the Huskies reaching the Final Four.

«Some people don't want the target,» coach Dan Hurley said last week about the potential of reaching No. 1. «I think we embrace the target at UConn.»

Purdue claimed 20 first-place votes, followed by Kansas — the poll's only team to stay in place from last week — holding three first-place votes despite a loss at UCF.

There was also North Carolina's three-spot jump to No. 4 after beating rival North Carolina State for its third Atlantic Coast Conference road win in as many tries and blowing out Syracuse at home. UNC even picked up a first-place vote.

ZAGS' FALL Gonzaga fell out from No. 23 after a loss at Santa Clara, marking the first time Mark Few's club has been unranked since the final two months of the 2015-16 season.

That ended a stretch of 143 consecutive weeks in the poll, with 39 of those coming at No. 1 — notably with that wire-to-wire run in the 2020-21 season that ended with Gonzaga suffering its only loss in the NCAA title game