Arizona falls to No. 11, ASU receives votes in latest AP Top 25 Poll

The Arizona State Wildcats and Arizona State Sun Devils saw movement in opposite directions in Monday’s Associated Press Top 25 Poll.

The Wildcats (15-3, 4-3) fell from No. 9 to No. 11 after going 1-1 against the Oregon schools on the road over the weekend.

Arizona has now lost two of its last three games after falling to Washington State at the McKale Center last week.

The Sun Devils (15-3, 6-1) are trending in the right direction, winning four straight contests over the Washington and Oregon schools after dropping two straight against San Francisco and Arizona.

Despite not receiving any votes during last week’s poll, Arizona State was the third team left out of the rankings with 79 total votes.

The Sun Devils will play for first place in the Pac-12 against No. 5 UCLA in Tempe on Thursday.

Eleven teams in the Top 25 went down on Saturday, tying a record that has stood for nearly 12 years, while Connecticut and Marquette also lost on Sunday to give the AP poll one of its biggest shakeups in recent history.

The banged-up Cougars, who had to fight off South Florida to avoid their own upset loss, watched their advantage over the Jayhawks shrink ever so slightly, pulling in 34 of 60 first-place votes from a national media panel. Kansas received 23 votes to remain second while Purdue picked up the remaining three to stay third.

Alabama remained at No. 4 while UCLA, riding a 13-game winning streak, climbed two spots to round out the top five.

Plenty of other teams weren’t so fortunate.

Tennessee fell four spots to No. 9 after losing to unranked Kentucky; UConn dropped from sixth to No. 15 after falling to Marquette and St. John’s, giving the Huskies four losses in their last five games and Kansas State fell two to No. 13 after losing to TCU; Arkansas plummeted 10 spots to No. 25 after losses to Alabama and Vanderbilt; and Missouri and Wisconsin dropped out altogether after each lost twice last week.

Kansas may have had the most impressive week, beating Oklahoma on Tuesday before squeaking by Iowa State 62-60 on Saturday — though the Cyclones were notable enough in defeat that they actually climbed two spots to No. 12 in the poll.

Gonzaga climbed to sixth in the poll Monday and was followed by Texas, Xavier, Tennessee and Virginia. Arizona was 11th, with the Cyclones ahead of Big 12 rivals Kansas State and TCU. UConn, Auburn, Miami, Charleston, Clemson and Marquette made the top 20. The final five were Baylor, Providence, Rutgers, FAU and Arkansas.

FAU, which has just one NCAA Tournament appearance in three decades of Division I hoops, continued its rise under Dusty May, a onetime student manager for Bob Knight who also worked for Mike White at Florida.

RISING AND FALLING

Xavier climbed four spots to No. 8 after pushing its winning streak to 11 games, Charleston also moved up four to No. 18 on the heels of its 17-game winning streak, while Marquette moved up five spots despite its close loss to the Musketeers.

Arkansas took the biggest tumble, falling 10 spots to No. 25, while UConn dropped nine to No. 15.

IN AND OUT

Clemson debuted at No. 19 after coach Brad Brownell picked up his 400th victory and the Tigers improved on the best start in ACC play in school history (7-0) with a 72-64 win over Duke on Saturday. Baylor, Rutgers and FAU also entered the poll at the expense of San Diego State, Wisconsin, Missouri and the Blue Devils.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Follow @AZSports