The results of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament left no doubt which team will conclude the season at No. 1. The second choice, unsurprisingly, was also unanimous. The biggest question was how the voters in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll would rank the rest of the field after the Big Dance. We now have our answer.
Connecticut, of course, will finish the year where it ended last season at the top. Runner-up Purdue lands at No. 2, its highest finish since USA TODAY began administering the poll in 1991.
The No. 3 ranking goes to Houston, the team that held the top spot for much of the campaign but met with bad injury luck during the tournament. Alabama vaults all the way to No. 4 after its run to the national semifinals. Tennessee, which came up a win short of the Final Four, rounds out the top five.
TOP 25: Complete USA TODAY Sports men’s basketball poll
CRYSTAL BALL: Way-too-early men’s basketball Top 25 for next season
North Carolina lands at No. 6, with Elite Eight finisher Illinois improving three spots to No. 7. Iowa State, Duke and Creighton round out the top 10, giving five conferences two top-10 squads apiece.
So what of North Carolina State? The Wolfpack’s unspectacular regular season but incredible Final Four journey left voters divided on where to place them. In the end, they land smack in the middle of the top 25 at No. 13, behind No. 11 Marquette and No. 12 Arizona. Clemson, the ACC’s third Elite Eight representative, lands at No. 15 in the final totals….
