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Gonzaga Basketball

Gonzaga inches up to No. 3 in Associated Press poll

With the benchwarmers on the court, the starters cheer a Gonzaga center Ismaila Diagne (24) score late the second half of a NCAA college basketball game with UMass Lowell, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, at the McCarthey Athletic Center. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)
By Theo Lawson theol@spokesman.com(509) 459-5584

Gonzaga continued its slow crawl toward the top of the Associated Press Top 25 rankings on Monday.

The Bulldogs moved up one spot to No. 3 in the latest poll, capitalizing on No. 2 Alabama’s loss to Purdue on last Friday in West Lafayette, Indiana.

The second poll of the regular season came out Monday morning, meaning voters weren’t able to factor in Gonzaga’s nonconference matchup against San Diego State later in the evening at Viejas Arena.

Kansas still holds the No. 1 ranking, followed by UConn at No. 2. Things could look different at the top of the poll by the time the Huskies and Zags meet in a highly-anticipated on Dec. 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York .

Rounding out the top-10 of Monday’s poll were No. 4 Auburn, No. 5 Iowa State, No. 6 Purdue, No. 7 Houston, No. 8 Alabama, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 10 North Carolina.

Gonzaga picked up two No. 1 votes in Monday’s poll, from Jon Wilner of the Mercury News in San Francisco and Mark Berman of the Virginia-based Roanoke Times.

The Zags have at least two more guaranteed nonconference matchups against teams occupying a top-10 ranking. One week before the UConn game, Gonzaga will be in Seattle facing Kentucky, which catapulted 10 spots Monday after Mark Pope’s squad beat Duke, previously ranked No. 6, in the Champions Classic.

Baylor, which lost to Gonzaga by 38 points in the season opener, dropped one spot to No. 13, despite winning twice last week . Arizona State is still receiving Top 25 votes eight days after losing to Gonzaga at McCarthey Athletic Center.

There could be a few more run-ins with Top 25 opponents for Gonzaga next week at the Battle 4 Atlantis, where Mark Few’s team could face former Bulldogs center Oumar Ballo and No. 16 Indiana in the second round before potentially facing former GU assistant Tommy Lloyd and No. 17 Arizona on Day 3.

Lloyd’s Wildcats experienced the most dramatic fall of any team Monday, slipping eight spots after losing 103-88 to unranked Wisconsin at Kohl Court in Madison, Wisconsin.

Gonzaga made up some ground in the USA Today Coaches Poll on Monday, moving up one spot to No. 4. Kansas, UConn and Auburn hold down the top three spots with Iowa State (No. 5), Purdue (No. 6), Houston (No. 7), Alabama (No. 7), Tennessee (No. 9) and Duke (No. 10) closing out the top 10.