AP College Basketball Poll 2023: Complete Week 18 Men's Rankings Released

The madness has arrived.

With less than one week remaining until Selection Sunday and major conference tournaments on the immediate horizon, the Associated Press released its latest Top 25 rankings for NCAA men's basketball Monday:

1. Houston

2. UCLA

3. Kansas

4. Alabama

5. Purdue

6. Marquette

7. Texas

8. Arizona

9. Gonzaga

10. Baylor

11. UConn

12. Kansas State

13. Virginia

14. Miami

15. Xavier

16. Saint Mary's

17. Tennessee

18. Texas A&M

19. Indiana

20. San Diego State

21. Duke

22. TCU

23. Kentucky

24. Creighton

25. Missouri

While much of the college basketball world's attention is on the upcoming week as teams play for automatic bids, seeding in the Big Dance and ideal positioning on the bubble, the new rankings reflect a week of notable results.

On Saturday alone, Texas A&M defeated Alabama, Texas handled Kansas, and Iowa State upset Baylor. Throw in West Virginia's beating Kansas State and Auburn's defeating Tennessee, and it wasn't safe to be in the Top 12 of the previous edition of rankings.

Perhaps the most notable result came when UCLA further cemented its spot as a national title contender and the class of the Pac-12 with an 82-73 victory over Arizona. The Bruins completed a 17-0 record at home and ended the regular season four games ahead of Arizona and USC in the conference standings.

Some March Madness veterans fittingly led the way in the Bruins' latest win with Jaime Jaquez Jr. (22 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals) and Tyger Campbell (21 points, five rebounds and four assists) stuffing the stat sheet.

UCLA did something Alabama and Kansas were unable to do by securing a win in its final regular-season contest and boosting its resume in the battle for the four No. 1 NCAA seeds. The Crimson Tide and Jayhawks are still well positioned for top seeds, though they will have to bounce back in their conference tournaments.

That will be easier said than done for Kansas in the daunting Big 12.

Texas, Baylor and Kansas State are all also fighting for a top-three seed in the NCAA tournament, while TCU and Iowa State aren't far behind. Throw in West Virginia as a Big Dance-bound challenger and Oklahoma State as a bubble team in need of wins, and the Big 12 tournament crown will be no straightforward task for the Jayhawks.

While they have their eyes on the bigger prize of back-to-back national championships, there is still a lot of work to be done.