Gonzaga falls to No. 2 in latest AP poll, Auburn claims top spot

Gonzaga men’s basketball (15-2, 4-0) is now ranked No. 2 in the nation after the latest AP top 25 rankings were released on Monday. The Auburn Tigers (18-1, 7-0) have claimed the No. 1 spot in the week 12 poll and sit atop the national standings for the first time all season.

Auburn received 45 first place votes while GU received 15 votes for the top spot. The Arizona Wildcats coached by former GU assistant Tommy Lloyd received one first place vote, but remain at No. 3 in the poll.

Auburn has been consistently climbing the national rankings since week 4 when the team were ranked No. 21. That was coming off the Tigers’ lone loss of the season against the No. 20 ranked University of Connecticut in double overtime.

Since then, Auburn has strung together a run that has caught the attention of coaches and voters around the country. They have quality wins against Alabama, No. 19 Louisiana State and most recently against No. 12 Kentucky after the Tigers handled the Wildcats 80-71 on Saturday. They also beat the University of Georgia 83-60 on Wednesday to go a perfect 2-0 last week.

Before dropping down slightly to the No. 2 spot, GU briefly reclaimed the No. 1 position in the AP poll last week after stringing together three consecutive games of 110+ points against West Coast Conference opponents.

Last week, the Zags had only one contest against the 16-4 San Francisco Dons. The Dons tested GU early in the contest, holding the team to 36 first half points after GU had put up at least 60 to start off its previous three games.

GU used incredulous defense in the second half to eventually rattle off a 16-point win and stay undefeated in conference play. Zags forward Drew Timme, who was named the men’s college basketball player of the week two weeks ago, went 9-for-20 shooting against USF and finished with 23 points. While Timme struggled to get into his rhythm for the majority of the game, freshman Chet Holmgren had four blocks and dropped 22 points on 70% field goal shooting.

Auburn also boasts a highly touted freshman big man in Jabari Smith, who put up 12 points against Georgia and 14 points against Kentucky on 50% shooting in both contests.

The Tigers were led in both games last week by sophomore big man Walker Kessler, who put up team highs 15 points and 19 points respectively in the team’s pair of wins last week.

Some other changes in the AP poll this week includes Baylor (17-2, 5-2) who got back up to No. 4 after falling from the top spot to No. 5 last week following a week that featured the Bears’ first two losses of the season. Davidson (16-2, 6-0) and Marquette (14-6, 6-3) cracked the top 25 for the first time this season at No. 25 and No. 22 respectively.

WCC program BYU received the most votes out of all the teams that didn’t make the top 25 cut this week. The Cougars raked in 120 votes to be ranked after beating USF, San Diego and Portland since falling to the Zags on Jan. 13.

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