Connecticut (24-2) stayed at No. 1 after extending the nation’s longest active winning streak to 14 games. Houston (22-3) jumped Purdue (23-3) to move to No. 2, while Purdue fell one spot to No. 3 after losing at Ohio State on Sunday. No. 4 Arizona and No. 5 Tennessee rounded out the top five.
Dayton is the highest-ranked team from outside the power six conferences and the only Ohio team receiving votes.
This is the sixth straight week Dayton has ranked in the top 25. Here’s a timeline:
• Dayton first received a top 25 vote in the Dec. 11 poll and then received two votes in the following two polls on Dec. 18 and Dec. 25. The Flyers received three votes on Jan. 1.
• On Jan. 8. Dayton ranked as high as No. 17 on one ballot and appeared on 30 of the 63 ballots.
• On Jan. 15, Dayton moved into the top 25, at No. 23, for the first time this season.
• On Jan. 22, Dayton climbed into the top 20, at No. 16, for the first time since 2020.
• On Jan. 27, Dayton dropped to No. 21 after losing 69-64 at Richmond.
• On Feb. 5, Dayton climbed to No. 18 after victories at home against George Washington and St. Bonaventure.
• On Feb. 12, with the 10 bottom teams in the poll finishing 1-1 the previous week, Dayton moved to No. 16. It won 94-79 at Saint Joseph’s and lost 49-47 at Virginia Commonwealth the previous week.
Other rankings: Dayton is No. 19 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (down one from last week), No. 24 on Haslametrics.com (down two), No. 16 in the USA Today Coaches poll (up two), No. 24 on BartTorvik.com (up one), No. 24 on KenPom.com (down two) and No. 23 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (up three).
Weekly award: Dayton junior forward DaRon Holmes II won the Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Week award for the fifth time this season on Monday. He averaged 26.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in two games.
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