AUSTIN (KXAN) — Voters in the Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll dropped the Texas Longhorns in the latest rankings released Monday.
The Longhorns dropped two spots to No. 8 following a road loss to Texas Tech and an overtime win at home over Oklahoma last week. They’ll take on No. 23 Iowa State at the Moody Center on Tuesday and No. 9 Baylor on Saturday in Waco.
Kansas is the highest-ranked Big 12 Conference team in the poll at No. 3, receiving seven first-place votes. Houston regained the No. 1 ranking while Alabama slid back down a spot to No. 2. UCLA and Purdue rounded out the top five, followed by Virginia, Arizona, Texas, Baylor and Marquette. The Golden Eagles are coached by former Longhorns coach Shaka Smart.
Kansas State checks in at No. 14, down two spots from last week, while Iowa State and TCU round out Big 12 teams in the poll at No. 23 and 24, respectively.
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The NCAA tournament selection committee released a draft Saturday of who it thinks the top 16 national seeds could be for March Madness, and the Longhorns were slated as the No. 5 seed. It’s three weeks before the teams and seeds for March Madness are finalized, but if the Longhorns continue to win in an incredibly competitive Big 12 Conference, it’s reasonable to think they could be a top-four team and be a regional top seed.
The committee placed Texas as the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region which will play its championship in Kansas City. Houston is the region’s top seed in the draft.
