Men’s basketball AP poll: Kansas survives UNC to stay No. 1 as Houston, Baylor tumble

Hunter Dickinson and Kansas held on to beat North Carolina on Friday night and pick up their first top 10 win of the season. (AP/Charlie Riedel)

The 2024-25 men’s college basketball season is officially off and running, and the top of the sport is still largely holding strong — starting with top-ranked Kansas after its big win over North Carolina on Friday night.

Here’s everything you missed in the opening week of the season and the latest Associated Press men’s basketball poll.

Kansas survives UNC to remain No. 1

The Jayhawks nearly blew a 20-point lead at home in a rare battle against North Carolina, but they’ve lived up to their second consecutive No. 1 ranking to start the season.

Kansas held on late at Allen Fieldhouse to beat the Tar Heels 92-89 and improve to 2-0 on the year on Friday night. The Jayhawks went up by 20 points in the first half and more than lived up to their ranking as the best team in the country. They shot better than 55% from the field in the first 20 minutes, and both Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams dominated inside early.

While the Tar Heels rallied back in the second half and took the lead on a Jalen Washington layup with just more than two minutes left in the game, Kansas finished the job. Dickinson responded with a go-ahead bucket after transfer Zeke Mayo tied it up with a jumper of his own to lift Kansas to the three-point win in what was just the 13th matchup between the two programs. The win was also Bill Self’s 590th in his career, which tied Phog Allen for the most in program history.

The win naturally kept Kansas at No. 1 in this week’s poll, which helped keep the top three spots in the rankings unchanged. North Carolina dropped a spot to No. 10.

The Jayhawks will go up against Michigan State next on Tuesday, and will get Cooper Flagg and No. 6 Duke and No. 14 Creighton in the next month before Big 12 play kicks off. North Carolina’s slate is easier, but it’ll host No. 2 Alabama next month.

Though it’s still early, and North…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mens-basketball-ap-poll-kansas-survives-unc-to-stay-no-1-as-houston-baylor-tumble-180608067.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-11 18:06:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.