AP men’s basketball Top 25: Arizona holds at No. 1 as Gonzaga, Miami and USC all fall again

The top group of teams held its ground, but there were still several notable upsets, one major return and a historic blowout this past week across college basketball.

Here’s everything you missed in Week 5 of the season, and the latest Associated Press men’s basketball poll.

Arizona holds at No. 1 as Gonzaga, Miami fall again

Arizona’s holding strong at the top. The Wildcats, who claimed their first No. 1 ranking in nearly a decade last week, beat No. 23 Wisconsin by 25 points on Saturday to stay perfect on the year. That kept them at No. 1 this week ahead of this weekend’s matchup with No. 3 Purdue, which edged out a win over Alabama on Saturday.

The top six remained unchanged, too, just in a slightly different order. Kansas beat Missouri, and both Houston and UConn had huge blowout wins on Saturday. Baylor, at No. 6, is still undefeated, too.

The first major loss of the week, however, came with Gonzaga. The Bulldogs have now lost twice this season, most recently with a five-point loss to Washington on Saturday. The win was Washington’s first over the Bulldogs since 2005. Gonzaga had beaten 16 straight Pac-12 opponents, too. As a result, Gonzaga fell three spots to No. 10 this week.

The Bulldogs, who fell to Purdue in Hawaii earlier this season, now have two non-conference losses with WCC play right around the corner. They’ll get UConn this week, too, in what will be a great opportunity to bounce back. If they fall there, though, this could be a long season for Mark Few.

The other truly surprising loss of the week came at the Barclays Center on Sunday afternoon. Colorado, thanks to a near-triple-double from Tristan da Silva, flew past Miami without any issue. The Buffaloes grabbed a 90-63 blowout win over Miami and outscored the Hurricanes 53-27 in the second half en route to the 27-point win. Miami was outrebounded by 12 and looked very outmatched inside.

The loss was Miami’s second of the season following a 22-point loss to Kentucky. The Hurricanes fell nine spots this week to No. 24.

North Dakota State ties NCAA record in blowout win

North Dakota State pulled out a historic, and wildly-lopsided, win Sunday.

The Bison beat Oak Hills Christian 108-14 at the Scheels Center in Fargo. That 94-point margin matched the modern men’s Division 1 basketball record, which was set in 2019 when Utah beat Mississippi Valley State.

NDSU led 60-5 at halftime, and the Bison shot just shy of 60% from the field in the win. The Bison are now 7-4 on the season.

Oak Hills, on the other hand, sits at just 2-9 this season. The small Christian college in Bemidji, Minnesota, only has about 100 students — about 11% of which are on the basketball team.

The blowout is at least the second of its kind so far this season. The South Carolina women beat Mississippi Valley State 101-19 last month in what was the Gamecocks’ 45th straight home win. That’s an 82-point victory margin.

Bronny’s back at USC, but the Trojans are still losing

Not even five months after he experienced cardiac arrest during a workout, Bronny James officially made his debut Sunday afternoon.

Bronny, the son of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, played in a limited capacity against Long Beach State in front of a packed house. LeBron and the rest of his family were sitting courtside, too.

Though he’s still on a very strict minutes restriction, Bronny had several great moments in the game — including a wild chase-down block.

His return, however, didn’t fix USC’s issues. The Trojans fell to Long Beach State in overtime in what was their third loss in four games. The team that started the year ranked now has four losses and seems a long way away from legitimately challenging No. 1 Arizona in the Pac-12.

Though it’s going to take some time for Bronny to find his footing and work his way out of that minutes restriction, USC has plenty of issues to work out elsewhere.

"We recruited Bronny James because he's a very good basketball player," coach Andy Enfield said. "We expect him to keep developing now that he's back on the court. He went through a very unfortunate situation, and he's done an incredible job to get back to this point. ... We have to get better as a basketball team; he needs to keep improving as an individual player. That's what we're focused on."

Games to watch this week

*Neutral Site Game

Friday, Dec. 15

No. 5 UConn at No. 10 Gonzaga | 10 p.m. ET | ESPN2 *

Saturday, Dec. 16

Texas A&M at No. 4 Houston | 2:30 p.m. ET | ESPN2

No. 1 Arizona at No. 3 Purdue | 4:30 p.m. ET | Peacock *

No. 9 North Carolina at No. 14 Kentucky | 5:30 p.m. ET | CBS *

AP Top 25

The full AP Top 25 poll from Dec. 11, 2023

1. Arizona (8-0)

2. Kansas (9-1)

3. Purdue (9-1)

4. Houston (10-0)

5. UConn (9-1)

6. Baylor (9-0)

7. Marquette (8-2)

8. Creighton (8-1)

9. North Carolina (7-2)

10. Gonzaga (7-2)

11. Oklahoma (9-0)

12. Tennessee (6-3)

13. Clemson (9-0)

14. Kentucky (7-2)

15. FAU (7-2)

16. Illinois (7-2)

17. Colorado State (9-1)

18. BYU (8-1)

19. Texas (7-2)

20. JMU (9-0)

21. Duke (6-3)

22. Virginia (8-1)

23. Wisconsin (7-3)

24. Miami (7-2)

25. Northwestern (7-1)

Others Receiving Votes: Colorado 116, Mississippi 86, Texas A&M 58, Auburn 57, Memphis 56, Alabama 43, Utah 25, Iowa State 20, Ohio St. 9, Providence 7, San Diego State 7, TCU 6, Nevada 5, South Carolina 3, New Mexico 2, Washington 2, Kansas State 1, Grand Canyon 1, Dayton 1, Saint Joseph's 1