Kansas Jayhawks’ final Associated Press ranking matches NCAA Tournament seed
Kansas, the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional and No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, on Monday moved from No. 6 to No. 3 in the final Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll of the 2021-22 season.
The Jayhawks (28-6) defeated West Virginia, TCU and Texas Tech last week in winning the Big 12 Tournament at T-Mobile Center in advance of Selection Sunday.
Gonzaga (26-3), the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAAs, kept its No. 1 ranking on Monday. The Bulldogs received 54 first-place votes. Arizona (31-3) which received the other seven first-place votes, was ranked No. 2, followed by KU (28-6), Baylor (26-6), Tennessee (26-7), Villanova (26-7), Kentucky (26-7), Auburn (27-5), Duke (28-6), Purdue (27-7), UCLA (25-7), Texas Tech (25-9), Providence (25-5), Wisconsin (24-7), Houston (29-5), Iowa (26-9), Arkansas (25-8), Saint Mary’s (25-7), Illinois (22-9), Murray State (30-2), UConn (23-9), USC (26-7), Boise State (27-7), Colorado State (25-5) and Texas (21-11).
Others receiving votes: Virginia Tech, South Dakota State, San Diego State, LSU, Loyola Chicago, Memphis, North Carolina, Michigan State, Texas A&M, Alabama, Ohio State, Creighton, Vermont, Indiana, San Francisco, Davidson, Yale, Longwood and Seton Hall.
Gonzaga, which was preseason No. 1, placed No. 1 in the final AP poll for the second straight year. The last men’s team to finish No. 1 in the final AP poll and win the national title was Kentucky in 2012. According to the AP, the lowest ranked team to win the title in at least 20 years was UConn, ranked 18th in the 2014 final poll.
KU will meet either Texas A&M Corpus-Christi or Texas Southern in a first-round NCAA Tournament game at 8:57 p.m. Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas.
