Auburn returns to No. 1 in AP, Coaches polls, strengthens the nation's best resume
AUBURN — Auburn (23-2, 11-1) returned to No. 1 in both the AP and Coaches polls on Monday after winning at No. 2 Alabama on Saturday. The Tigers received 90 of 91 first-place votes cast. Florida received one first-place vote in the AP poll.
It’s the sixth-straight week Auburn has been atop the AP poll. The Tigers were atop the Coaches poll for four weeks, before slipping to No. 2 last week, and now regaining the top spot.
Auburn is 4-2 against current Top 10 teams in the AP poll, losing to No. 2 Florida and No. 3 Duke, while beating No. 4 Alabama, No. 5 Houston, No. 6 Tennessee and No. 8 Iowa State. The Tigers also hold ranked wins over No. 13 Purdue, No. 15 Missouri, No. 21 Mississippi State, No. 22 Memphis and No. 24 Ole Miss.
Auburn has now won at least 23 games for the sixth time in the last eight seasons. Before that, the Tigers had only won 23 games three times in program history.
BRIEF THOUGHTS AND GRADES: NO. 1 AUBURN OVER NO. 2 ALABAMA
The Tigers’ 7-0 record in SEC play is a new program record for league road wins.
The poll position simply supports the analytics that say Auburn not only is the best team in college basketball right now, but possesses the best overall resume.
The Tigers’ 14 Quad I wins are six more than the next closest three teams — Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama with eight. Of the six remaining regular season games, the final four are currently slated to be Quad I games against Ole Miss, at Kentucky, at Texas A&M and Alabama.
The Tigers are No. 1 in the NET ratings and KenPom, while sitting at No. 2 in Torvik and No. 3 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index and EvanMiya’s team ratings.
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KenPom still says Auburn’s strength of schedule is No. 1 nationally. The Tigers join Duke, Houston and Florida as the only teams with a Top 15 KenPom offensive and defensive efficiency rating.
ESPN’s BPI rates Auburn’s overall resume and strength of record tops in the nation.
Duke and Houston are one and two in the BPI and EvanMiya, with Houston No. 1 in Torvik ahead of Auburn, largely because the pair of teams is putting up extremely productive numbers against far weaker competition than Auburn. Different analytics weigh statistics differently.
Auburn was named the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s first reveal of the Top 16 seeds on Saturday. The reveal is a snapshot of where things stand now, as the Tigers’ win over Alabama only strengthened its position atop the college basketball world.
And one more fun thing to think about.
When is the last time a team was the No. 1 overall seed, and boasted the National Player of the Year and National Coach of the Year? That’s what is in front of Auburn, with Johni Broome seemingly battling Duke’s Cooper Flagg for the top honor and Bruce Pearl making his case with every significant Auburn win, of which there have been many this season.
