It’s hard to believe, but we have finally come to the end of the road: My final AP Top 25 ballot for the 2025-26 college basketball season. The next time I perform this exercise, it will be after the NCAA Tournament is over.
As usual, I have relied on a diverse set of metrics to help me with my balloting: the NET, a predictive metric which serves as the NCAA’s primary organizing tool; KPI, a results metric which gives added weight to good wins and bad losses; and Wins Above Bubble, a linear results-based metric. Those rankings appear in order next to each team. The numbers in parentheses represents where I ranked each team last week.
Of course, the end of this road coincides with the start of another: the road to the Final Four. So let us rejoice as I present for the final time the (correct) order of the top 25 teams in men’s college basketball, as filed to the Associated Press Sunday night.
DROPPED OUT: Saint Louis (23), Utah State (24)
ALMOST FAMOUS: BYU (25-25-24), Iowa (25-23-37), Kentucky (27-27-28), Miami (29-30-26), Georgia (30-31-29), Ohio State (32-26-39), Clemson (35-38-31), UCLA (36-40-32), Santa Clara (41-37-43), TCU (42-38-35), Texas A&M (43-34-41)
Notes on the votes
• The first team to take a hit was UConn, which dropped four spots following its loss at Marquette. The Huskies’ 32-point evisceration of St. John’s on Feb. 25 is keeping them afloat, but as I’ve been saying for weeks, this team has flaws heading into the postseason. On Saturday, that flaw was outside shooting, as evidenced in the ghastly 3 for 24 performance from three. UConn has been piling up wins all season, but lately they have been closer than they should have been, especially against some mediocre competition inside the league. I still think the Huskies are the team to beat in the Big East Tournament, but if you’re looking for a high-seeded team to bounce out of your bracket earlier than expected, you could do worse than UConn.
• Texas Tech took a tumble following losses to TCU (home) and BYU (away). The absence of J.T. Toppin is clearly taking its toll, as we all knew it would. But I also have to consider that last week the Red Raiders won at Iowa State pretty convincingly without him. My gut tells me Texas Tech is a borderline top-25 team, at best, but we’ll know more after it heads to Kansas City for the Big 12 Tournament. Note: The Hoops HQ Show hosted Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland last week. Check it out here.
• Vanderbilt appears to have gotten its swagger back with road wins at Ole Miss (in overtime) and Tennessee, although the latter carries an asterisk since the Vols were playing without their stud freshman forward Nate Ament. The Commodores have had Duke Miles back in the lineup for just five games, and they appear to be hitting their stride at the right time.
• Arkansas scored one of the most impressive wins of the weekend at Missouri in overtime while Darius Acuff Jr. sat to rest his injured foot. That followed a 20-point rout over Texas at home. If Acuff is healthy for the postseason, no one is going to want to play the Razorbacks.
• Kansas dropped six spots for losing at Arizona State. An easy win over struggling Kansas State on Saturday didn’t count for much. The Jayhawks are one of many teams that could go to the Elite Eight or lose in the first round.
• I wouldn’t have moved North Carolina down for losing at Duke but for the season-ending thumb injury to freshman forward Caleb Wilson. The Tar Heels had won four straight prior to that, including solid home wins over Louisville and Clemson. I left the Heels where they were while they were playing without Wilson because he was due to return, but now that we know he is out for the season, that has to be factored in.
• Wisconsin is one of several teams that have toggled in and out of my rankings all season, but the Badgers are back in courtesy of their 97-93 win at Purdue on Saturday. Wisconsin needs to be ranked ahead of the Boilermakers, who have lost four of their last six games and dropped five games at home this season. Frankly, I’m not even sure Purdue is a top-25 team right now.
• Louisville ended its brief time out of my rankings by winning a road game at Miami without freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr., who is once again dealing with back issues. The Cardinals also beat Syracuse at home by 15 points. Prior to that, they had lost three out of four, but they were all on the road against good teams in SMU, North Carolina and Clemson. Pat Kelsey’s group deserves tremendous credit for how they are playing without Brown, but clearly they need him healthy if they are going to make any kind of run in the NCAA Tournament.
• Is it time to start worrying about Saint Louis? The Billikins got dominated 86-57 at George Mason on Saturday. That was their third loss in the last six games after losing just once in their first 25. Utah State also fell out after losing at UNLV last Tuesday. That was the Aggies’ third loss in their final five games.
• As for my Almost Famous group, keep your eye on UCLA, which is clearly improved now that Skyy Clark has found his groove again. The 6-foot-3 senior guard has played seven games since missing 10 straight with a strained hamstring. The Bruins won four of their final five games, including home wins over Illinois (in overtime) and Nebraska.
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