Gonzaga drops one spot to No. 8 in AP poll, rises to No. 4 in NET

The Associated Press college basketball poll took a week off between releasing its Week 8 and Week 10 rankings.

Gonzaga squeezed in a short holiday break before tackling a four-game, eight-day span with a 4-0 record to open West Coast Conference play.

That didn’t resonate with AP voters, who dropped the Zags (16-1) from No. 7 to No. 8 in Monday’s latest rankings. GU swapped places with Houston (13-1), which has won seven straight and topped Cincinnati 67-60 on Saturday in a Big 12 Conference opener.

Gonzaga trails the Cougars, led by former Washington State coach Kelvin Sampson, by 12 points. The Zags were 19 points in front of Houston in the Dec. 22 media poll.

There wasn’t much movement in the top 10, but No. 2 Michigan, which hammered GU 101-61 in Las Vegas, made up some ground on top-ranked Arizona, coached by former Zags assistant Tommy Lloyd. The Wolverines (13-0) snagged 29 first-place votes and 1,493 points, just one point behind the Wildcats (14-0), who received 32 first-place votes.

Iowa State (14-0) is No. 3, followed by UConn, Purdue and Duke. BYU moved up one spot to No. 9 and Nebraska jumped three spots to No. 10.

Alabama, which fell to GU 95-85 in Las Vegas, climbed one spot to No. 13. The Zags also hold wins over Kentucky and UCLA when both were ranked. The Wildcats (9-5) and Bruins (10-4) are receiving votes outside the top 25.

Saint Mary’s, which shares first-place in the WCC with GU and Santa Clara, received 10 points, one more than Kentucky.

Gonzaga entertains Santa Clara (13-4, 4-0 WCC) at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Broncos upset GU 103-99 last season at the McCarthey Athletic Center before the Zags won the rematch 95-76 in Santa Clara.

The Big 12 has four teams in the top 10 and seven in the top 25. The Big Ten has six ranked teams, three in the top 10. The ACC and SEC each have five teams in the rankings.

The Zags moved up two spots to No. 4 in the NET rankings, used by the NCAA to help select and seed March Madness. Michigan, Arizona and Iowa State occupy the top three spots. Alabama is No. 12, Saint Mary’s No. 23 and Kentucky No. 31.

Gonzaga remains a two seed in most NCAA Tournament bracket projections, including ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and bracketmatrix.com. The Zags are the fifth overall seed in Lunardi’s latest and No. 6 overall at bracketmatrix.com.

Lunardi lists Arizona as the top seed in the West Region with the Zags at No. 2. Portland is the closest first- and second-round site to GU’s campus.

Gonzaga and Houston also swapped places in the USA Today coaches’ poll with the Zags slipping from seventh to eighth. The top six: Michigan, Arizona, Iowa State, UConn, Purdue and Duke.