Tennessee surged to the top of the Associated Press college basketball poll for the first time Monday on the strength of its victory over Memphis in a Nos. 1-vs.-2 matchup.
The football team at Tennessee has been ranked No. 1 during four seasons, including two national titles. The women’s basketball program has been a regular atop that poll since 1977, winning seven national championships under coach Pat Summitt.
Now it’s the men’s turn.
The Volunteers (25-2) were a runaway choice, receiving 69 first-place votes and 1,797 points from the 72-member national media panel after a 66-62 victory at Memphis. Tennessee is the 53rd school to hold the No. 1 ranking since the poll began for the 1948-49 season.
“The response has been overwhelming here,” Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said Monday. “The game Saturday, there’ll always be a lot of talk of where were you when they beat Memphis to become No. 1? It was that kind of event so it will have some staying power, but for us there will be little staying power because we have to go play at Vanderbilt on Tuesday where they have won 17 straight games.”
Memphis (26-1), which lost for the first time this season when Tennessee ended its 47-game home winning streak, had been ranked No. 1 for the past five weeks, the last three as a unanimous choice. The Tigers were No. 2 and received 1,682 points.
Kent State (23-5) moved into the Top 25 for the first time at No. 23.
Texas moved up two spots to fifth. Kansas, which lost at Oklahoma State on Saturday, and Duke both dropped two spots to sixth and seventh, respectively.
