Florida Back in Top 25

MCLEAN, Virginia (Ticker) -- Defending two-time national champion Florida joined the top 25 for the first time this season in the latest USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll released Monday. The 19th-ranked Gators made their first foray into the rankings after recording a 73-71 road win at South Carolina on Wednesday and an 86-64 home rout of then-No. 13 Vanderbilt on Sunday.

Memphis retained their top spot from last week with wins over Tulsa on Wednesday and Gonzaga on Saturday. One of two remaining unbeaten teams along with Kansas, Memphis (19-0) lost a first-place vote from last week, but still garnered 20 first-place votes and 764 points overall. Kansas (20-0) garnered the other 11 first-place votes and is second with 754 points. Duke (17-1) and North Carolina (19-1), each rolled to a double-digit victory in their only games of the week.

UCLA (18-2) moved up to fifth after a pair of road wins over Oregon and Oregon State. Georgetown (16-2) is sixth, followed by Michigan State (18-2). Tennessee (17-2) and Washington State (17-2), each of which lost conference games during the week, dropped two spots to eighth and ninth, respectively. Texas (16-3) rounds out the first 10.

The next three are Indiana (17-2), Butler (19-2) and Wisconsin (16-3). Stanford (16-3), Xavier (17-4), Marquette (14-4) and Drake all made significant jumps into the top 20, while Vanderbilt fell five spots to No. 18 with its loss to the Gators. No. 19 Florida is followed by Saint Mary's (17-2). Pittsburgh (16-4) fell four spots to No. 21 with Saturday's setback against Rutgers. Mississippi (15-3) and Texas A&M (16-4) each lost during the week to fall back seven spots to No. 22 and No. 23, respectively. Kansas State (14-4) and Mississippi State (14-5) round out the poll and are new to the rankings. Villanova, Dayton and Clemson fell out of the poll.