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Achieving sustained excellence in any sport is difficult.
There is a need to hire the right trainers year after year. Great players continue to emerge to replace those who leave. This requires luck, to be sure, but it also requires passionate fans, exclusive features, proper marketing, and the flexibility to adapt as times change.
In college basketball, those who have the right mix can rise to the top AP Top 25.
Since the Associated Press began ranking teams in January 1949 St. Louis was ranked No. 1, several schools have claimed the crown. Some fell by the wayside, replaced by others who rose to respectable election. But through extensive changes which is converted college basketballAnd of the more than 1,200 surveys that have tried to make sense of it, one thing remains constant: Kentucky is usually near the top.
to celebrate This month marks the 75th anniversary of the Top 25The AP reviewed every poll to determine the all-time No. 1 and the Wildcats – the winningest program in college basketball – gave North Carolina a slight edge for the top of the heap.
“When I got here,” recalled current Kentucky coach John Calipari, “it was just knowing that it matters in this state. The fans are incredibly engaged. There were people who were excited about our recruiting. He knew more than me. That’s when you realize this is different.”
It’s been that way ever since Adolph Rupp, the Kansas-born farm boy who became the Baron of the Bluegrass, made the Wildcats a perennial power for 42 seasons starting in 1930.
They ultimately ousted St. Louis from No. 1 in the first season and have rarely gone that far in the last 75 years. So when teams were awarded points based on their position on each ballot, as they are in the weekly rankings today, Kentucky finished No. 1 last season with 17,852 points. The Tar Heels had 17,268, while Duke, Kansas and UCLA were next.
“They all have great followers. They all recruit excellence. But it all goes back to the players,” said current St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, who won national championships at both Kentucky and Louisville, coming in at No. 6 on the all-time list.
“At Kentucky,” Pitino said, “every year you can get a great player from Dan Issel and Pat Riley.”
Arizona was seventh on the all-time list, followed by Indiana, Syracuse and Michigan State in the top 10.
The list is not intended to crown the greatest college basketball program, as greatness can be measured in different ways: Duke has been the most dominant program over the past three decades; Kansas is considered the cradle of coaches, boasting not only Rupp and Calipari but also North Carolina’s Dean Smith and current coach Bill Self; and UCLA has the most national championships with 11. Additionally, the final AP Poll of each season is released prior to the NCAA Tournament.
Rather, the AP’s All-Time Top 25 is a measure of sustained excellence as demonstrated by generations of voters, men and women who have covered the game and attempted Order the most qualified teams on their weekly ballots.
Have voters got it right over the years? Pitino thinks so, as do several coaches surveyed by the AP in recent months.
“The AP Poll is one that everyone has a lot of respect for,” said Tom Izzo, whose four decades as an assistant and head coach at Michigan State helped the Spartans finish in the top 10. “I think doing something like this means you’ve been working continuously for 75 years. And many of those years I wasn’t alive, but many of those years I was a part of it.
Kentucky has appeared in more than 75% of the AP polls, while Duke has been ranked No. 1 more than any other program.
“I think the poll got it right,” said ESPN analyst Dick Vitale, a longtime AP pollster. “The voters take this seriously and ensure that the most deserving teams are placed. There’s a reason those teams are called bluebloods, and this just reinforces that.”
from beginning to end
There have been 14 teams that were wire-to-wire No. 1, including Gonzaga during the 2020-21 season, which is perhaps best remembered for the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bulldogs’ finest season ended against Baylor in the national title game.
Half of those wire-to-wire teams won titles: Bill Russell and San Francisco in 1956; John Wooden’s teams at UCLA in 1967, ’69, ’72 and ’73; Indiana in 1976, the last team to finish the season undefeated; And the Duke team in 1992 needed it A heroic shot from Christian Laettner Defeated Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament, then defeated Michigan for the title.
Three other wire-to-wire No. 1 seeds in the tournament had perfect seasons: Ohio State in 1961, UNLV in ’91 and Kentucky in ’15.
game of numbers
206 teams have participated in the voting, of which 13 have made a single appearance. The most recent was Old Dominion, which was ranked 25th on January 1, 2015, lost to Western Kentucky and has not yet recovered.
UCLA holds the record for consecutive polls at 221, beginning the 1966–67 season ranked No. 1 and holding it until losing to USC on January 12, 1980. The longest streak entering 2024 belonged to Gonzaga, whose run of 142 was barely halted. The Bulldogs fell 11 spots to No. 24 in the poll released on Jan. 1.
Remember me
Eleven programs ranked in the top 25 will no longer play at the highest level of college basketball. Some of them, like Wayne State and West Texas A&M, moved to Division II. Beloit, New York and Hamline, which played the first recorded intercollegiate game in 1895, are among those that dropped to the Division III level.
Some are no longer around. Texas-Pan American merged with Texas-Brownsville to form Texas-Rio Grande Valley, which plays Division I hoops. St. Francis (Brooklyn) ended all intercollegiate athletics last year due to financial concerns.
special and exaggerated
Given the current conference configuration, the ACC had the most schools in the top 10 all-time (four) and was tied with the Big Ten for the most in the top 25 with seven schools. The Big East was next with four, followed by the Big 12 with three.
Kansas and Michigan share the record for the biggest survey jump, moving out of the rankings the following week to No. 4. The Jayhawks accomplished the feat on November 27, 1990, while the Wolverines accomplished the feat on December 2, 2020.
Maryland is the highest-ranked team in the all-time poll to never top the AP Top 25, although the 16th-ranked Terrapins have spent 25 weeks at No. 2. 1s Utah ranks 43rd in the all-time poll.
No preseason No. 1 team has won a national championship since North Carolina in 2009. Kentucky was the last No. 1 seed entering the NCAA Tournament to cut the Nets in 2012. However, each of the last eight champions has finished in the top 10.
Seven schools have spent A great week at number 1: Oklahoma State (1951), Wichita State (1964), South Carolina (1969), Georgia Tech (1985), Iowa (1987), St. Joseph’s (2004) and Wisconsin (2007).
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AP Sports Writers Larry Ledge in East Lansing, Michigan, Gary B. Graves and Mike Fitzpatrick in New York contributed.
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