Florida Atlantic’s run to the Final Four last season was viewed as a nice story, a small program making a surprise run before sliding back into anonymity.
The Owls are showing this season that that was no fluke.
Coming off a double-overtime win over No. 4 Arizona, FAU moved up seven places to No. 7 in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll released Monday. It’s the Owls’ highest ranking as a program after being No. 10 in the preseason poll.
“We wanted to play it in the worst way for a lot of reasons,” FAU coach Dusty May said before the 96-95 win over Arizona on Saturday. “National television. Our guys wanted to be challenged. They love the challenge..”
Purdue maintained its top ranking for the second straight week, receiving 46 first-place votes from a 60-person media panel after blowing out Jacksonville. No. 2 Kansas had five first-place votes and No. 3 Houston received nine. Arizona and UConn rounded out the top five.
The Big 12 again had the most ranked teams with six and the Big East had four. The ACC, Big Ten and SEC each had three.
The American Athletic Conference had two ranked teams while the Pac-12, West Coast, Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences had one each.
