The Illinois Fighting Illini remained steady in this week's college basketball polls coming in at No. 16 in the AP Poll and no. 17 in the Coaches Poll.
Illinois beat Lindenwood from the Ohio Valley Conference Friday night, 92-59. The Illini host Syracuse tonight in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge at the State Farm Center.
The story of the week in college basketball is Houston taking over the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 poll Monday morning and in the USA Today Coaches Poll, jumping one spot from No. 2 just one week after it had moved from No. 3 — where it began in the preseason — to No. 2. The Cougars supplanted preseason No. 1 North Carolina after UNC took two losses in three days participating in the PK85.
UNC fell 14 spots this week to No. 15.Twenty-three of a possible 32 first-place votes cast by coaches went to Houston on the week to spur its charge to the top. There was far from a consensus, though, with four teams in total earning at least one first-place vote including Texas, Virginia and Purdue.
Texas, which ranks No. 2 in the Coaches Poll this week, up two spots from last week, earned the second-most first-place votes with five. Purdue, which jumped 18 spots to No. 5, earned the third-most with three while No. 3 Virginia earned one vote.
Houston took over the top spot from North Carolina after a major shakeup in Monday's poll, marking the first time in 39 years the Cougars are at the top of the AP rankings.
Houston improved to 6-0 after a 49-44 win over Kent State while last week's No. 1, No. 3, No. 6 and No. 8-ranked teams all took at least one loss. It earned 45 first-place votes. The last time the Cougars were No. 1 was the final poll of the 1982-83 season before the Cougars lost to NC State in the NCAA Tournament final.
The Tar Heels, who lost to Iowa State and Alabama, fell to No. 18 in this week's poll.
Chaos in college hoops benefited another team in the great state of Texas beyond Houston as Texas also got a boost in the rankings, moving from No. 4 to No. 2 after a week in which it handled business to improve to 5-0. Its No. 2 ranking is the highest for the program since the 2009 season.
Elsewhere in the poll, Virginia scooted up two spots to No. 3 while both Arizona and Purdue made huge jumps from outside the top 10 to No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. Rounding out the top 10 is Baylor, Creighton, UConn, Kansas and Indiana.
