College Basketball AP Top 25: 9 SEC teams crack latest poll as Auburn stays No. 1

College basketball’s latest AP Top 25 poll that was released on Monday continued the SEC dominance narrative of this season, as Auburn remained at No. 1 with 8 other SEC teams in the poll.

The long SEC Top 25 roll call begins with Bruce Pearl’s dynamic team, which survived a close game on Saturday at Georgia without injured star Johni Broome. The Tigers improved to 17-1 this season, with their lone loss coming to Duke, which moved up 1 spot to No. 2 in front of No. 3 Iowa State, which fell 1 spot after losing at West Virginia on Saturday.

Back to the SEC, with Alabama, Florida and Tennessee filling the next 3 spots in the poll at No. 4, 5 and 6. The 3 SEC teams all remained in the same spot in the poll despite all losing last week. Houston was at No. 7 in this week’s poll, followed by Michigan State. Then it was back to the SEC with Kentucky at No. 9, with Marquette filling out the Top 10.

Texas A&M and Mississippi State were ranked 13th and 14th, with Ole Miss at No. 16 after Saturday’s overtime loss at Mississippi State. Missouri completed the SEC brigade by moving into the Top 25 at No. 22.

Vanderbilt was 3rd in the “others receiving votes” category, getting 35 votes for the poll. Georgia, which was No. 23 in last week’s poll, got 30 votes for this week’s poll after that crushing loss to Auburn over the weekend.

Here’s a look at the full top 25:

1. Auburn
2. Duke
3. Iowa State
4. Alabama
5. Florida
6. Tennessee
7. Houston
8. Michigan State
9. Kentucky
10. Marquette
11. Purdue
12. Kansas
13. Texas A&M
14. Mississippi State
15. Oregon
16. Ole Miss
17. Illinois
18. Wisconsin
19. UConn
20. St. John’s
21. Michigan
22. Missouri
23. West Virginia
24. Memphis
25. Louisville

Cory Nightingale

Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.