NCAA Basketball: Texas rises, Gonzaga claims No. 1 spot in latest AP poll
1. The voters got it right
After Wednesday’s Maui Invitational triumph over Duke, Gonzaga rightfully received plenty of praise and adulation in their quest to become the new top dog in the AP rankings.
Later that night, however, Kansas survived a brutal blow from Marquette to maintain their unbeaten record.
The Jayhawks started the season at No. 1 and haven’t lost yet, begging the question of whether or not they can reclaim their ranking.
Ultimately, Gonzaga deserved the nod.
Kansas has two and a half impressive victories, but none looked particularly impressive in the moment. They had Michigan State dead to rights on opening night before letting them climb back into it. Marquette was rolling the Jayhawks before the Golden Eagles went cold to start the second half. They needed overtime to triumph over Tennessee.
Meanwhile, Gonzaga blew the doors off Texas A&M, they convincingly beat Illinois, Arizona, and Duke in three consecutive days. They did all of that without their best player, Killian Tillie, who has yet to play this season.
The margin between these two teams is razor-thin. If one first-placed vote when the other way, Kansas would be on top today, not Gonzaga.
Both teams play interesting games on December 1, when the Zags play Creighton and Kansas plays Stanford.
dark. Next. Winners and losers from Week 3
In all likelihood, however, we’ll be having this same debate next week.