Kansas remained atop the first Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll of the regular season after winning a matchup of basketball bluebloods, while Gonzaga and Auburn cracked the top five after impressive opening-week wins and St. John’s led by Rick Pitino joined the rankings.The Jayhawks received 44 of 62 first-place votes after a home win against North Carolina, a game that saw Kansas blow a 20-point lead but hold on for a 92-89 win. That kept them ahead of Alabama and two-time reigning national champion UConn in an unchanged 1-2-3 lineup in the poll, with the Crimson Tide getting six first-place votes and the Huskies getting seven.Mark Few’s Zags moved up two spots to No. 4 after blowing out then-No. 8 Baylor to open the season, then pushing past Arizona State. Next came Bruce Pearl’s Tigers, who jumped six spots to No. 5 for the week’s biggest leap after beating then-No. 4 Houston. The Zags and Tigers earned the remaining five first-place votes.Auburn was the only new arrival in a largely reshuffled top 10, with Duke rising one spot to No. 6 to lead the next group. Iowa State was seventh, followed by Houston, Arizona and North Carolina, which fell one spot after the loss at KU’s Allen Fieldhouse.St. John’s jumping in at No. 22 marked a notable return for two reasons. It marks the Red Storm’s first appearance since spending a week at No. 24 in January 2019, but it also marks a return for Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino.This is the first time a Pitino-coached team has appeared in the Top 25 since the final poll of the 2016-17 season when he was at Louisville. Pitino …
