AP Top 25: Big 12's Cougars — both of them — move up in latest college basketball poll

PROVO — BYU men's basketball continued to rise after its 2-0 start to the 2025-26 season.

The Cougars out of the Big 12 are moving up — and yes, both of them.

BYU moved up one spot to No. 7 in the latest Associated Press Top 25. It's the Cougars' highest ranking in the poll since 2011.

The Cougars (2-0) rank 16th by KenPom after opening with wins over Villanova and Holy Cross. Kentucky currently holds the top spot in the predictive metric, followed by Houston, Illinois, Duke and Florida.

The Big 12's other Cougars — Houston, the Big 12 preseason favorite — swapped spots with previous No. 1 Purdue by collecting three more points from the 61-person panel of college basketball reporters. Houston blew out Lehigh and Towson by an average of 18 points in 2-0 start, while Purdue struggled to an 87-77 win Friday over Oakland.

Kelvin Sampson's Cougars received 18 first-place votes to Purdue's 36, with UConn (3), Duke (2) and Michigan (1) also receiving first-place votes. The Huskies (2-0) backed up the Boilermakers at third, followed by the Blue Devils (2-0) and Arizona (2-0) in the top five.

In all, six Big 12 teams were ranked in the top 25, including BYU, which outlasted Villanova 71-66 at T-Mobile Arena behind 21 points, six rebounds and three assists from AJ Dybantsa. The 6-foot-9 AP Preseason All-American who also had 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists in 24 minutes of a 98-53 win over Holy Cross also received preseason first-team All-American honors from the Sporting News on Monday.

The conference's six ranked teams are tied for the most in the country with the Big Ten and SEC. But it wasn't all good news for the Big 12, which saw Kansas tumble six spots to No. 25 following an 87-74 loss to then-No. 25 North Carolina.

The Tar Heels (2-0) moved up seven spots to No. 18, as a result, one of three ranked teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

BYU hosts Delaware at 7 p.m. MST Tuesday on CBS Sports Network before a weekend road trip to face Connecticut at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday (5 p.m. MST, FOX).

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