Florida Atlantic Owls climb to No. 7 in latest AP men’s college basketball poll
After their surprise run to the Final Four last season, Florida Atlantic’s basketball team is showing it was no fluke with their impressive rise in the rankings this season.
Following a thrilling double-overtime victory over No. 4 Arizona, the Owls moved up seven places to No. 7 in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll released on Monday. This marks the highest ranking in program history after being No. 10 in the preseason poll.
“I wanted to play it in the worst way for a lot of reasons,” FAU coach Dusty May said before the 96-95 win over Arizona on Saturday. “National television. Our guys wanted to be challenged. They love the challenge. And we felt our program was at a point where we needed these games to elevate even more than a Final Four run.”
Purdue maintained its top ranking for the second straight week, with Kansas and Houston rounding out the top three. The Owls’ rise comes after an impressive season last year, where they made a magical run in the NCAA tournament.
The Owls have shown another deep run could be in the cards this season, returning nearly everyone from last year’s team. Despite an early slipup with a home loss to Bryant and a seven-point loss to then-No. 20 Illinois, FAU managed to win the ESPN Events Invitational by defeating then-No. 12 Texas A&M in the semifinals and Virginia Tech in the title game.
In their latest game against Arizona, Johnell Davis scored 35 points as FAU dodged a buzzer-beating attempt to secure their fifth win over a ranked opponent in the past two seasons. The Owls had previously been 1-19 against AP Top 25 teams last season.
FAU’s rise in the rankings comes as No. 22 Creighton had the biggest drop of the week, falling 10 places after losing to Villanova in overtime. No. 12 Oklahoma also fell five places after a loss to No. 9 North Carolina.
The Big 12 again had the most ranked teams with six, while the Big East had four. The ACC, Big Ten, and SEC each had three, with the American Athletic Conference and Pac-12 following with two and one respectively.