AP College Basketball Poll 2024: Complete Week 18 Men's Rankings Released

This is March.

The Associated Press released its first men's college basketball Top 25 of the final month of the regular season on Monday, and Houston remained on top. But there is plenty of firepower right behind the Cougars with UConn, Purdue, Tennessee and Arizona rounding out the top five.

Here is a look at the full rankings:

1. Houston
2. UConn
3. Purdue
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Iowa State
7. North Carolina
8. Marquette
9. Duke
10. Creighton
11. Baylor
12. Illinois
13. Auburn
14. Kansas
15. Kentucky
16. Alabama
17. South Carolina
18. Washington State
19. Gonzaga
20. BYU
21. San Diego State
22. Utah State
23. Saint Mary's
24. South Florida
25. Dayton

There was almost a change atop the poll, as Houston received quite a scare Saturday. After defeating a pesky Cincinnati challenger by eight points on Tuesday, the Cougars hit the road to take on Oklahoma and needed a dramatic finish to improve to 26-3 overall and 13-3 in conference play.

Javian McCollum tied it up in the final seconds for the Sooners only for Jamal Shead to scoop up an offensive rebound and hit a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to stun the Oklahoma crowd in an 87-85 win.

While it was the most memorable result, it was far from the only important one on a crowded Saturday slate.

Tennessee went into Alabama and took a critical step toward an SEC regular-season title with an 81-74 victory, while Creighton handled the previously fifth-ranked Marquette Golden Eagles with relative ease in a 14-point win to move within a half-game of second place in the Big East.

It was the second impressive win for each of those schools this past week, as the Volunteers defeated Auburn and the Bluejays defeated Seton Hall on Wednesday.

Baylor also took care of business at home against Kansas to enact some revenge from its Feb. 10 loss, and Gonzaga may have clinched an at-large spot with a dominant road win over Saint Mary's.

While the Bulldogs are typically the gold standard of the West Coast Conference, the Gaels won the league's regular-season crown even though they missed an opportunity for an exclamation-point win in front of their own fans ahead of tournament time.

At this point, everyone has their eyes on the upcoming conference tournaments and the eventual Big Dance, but there are still seeds to be earned and titles to be clinched.

The upcoming week will feature a number of games that go a long way toward those goals, including Purdue against Illinois, Tennessee against South Carolina and then later against Kentucky, UConn against Marquette, Kansas against Houston, and North Carolina against Duke.

Let the Madness begin.