Kansas Jayhawks voted No. 1 in final Associated Press college basketball poll
Kansas, which was voted the No. 1 men’s basketball team in the country in the USA Today coaches poll Monday, made it a clean sweep by placing first in the final Associated Press media Top 25, which was announced Wednesday.
The Big 12 champion Jayhawks (28-3) received 63 of a possible 65 first-place votes and outdistanced No. 2 Gonzaga, 1,623-1,547, in voting points in the final AP poll of the 2019-20 season. No. 2 Gonzaga (31-2) received a first-place vote as did No. 3 Dayton (29-2).
It marks the fourth time KU finished the season No. 1. KU also was AP’s No. 1 team in 2016, 2010 and 1997, in the final poll, released before the NCAA Tournament.
The Associated Press Poll began in 1948-49. Kansas has been ranked in 790 polls, including 305 under 17th-year coach Bill Self. KU has been in the poll each of the last 220 weeks, which is the longest active streak in NCAA Division I. KU was ranked No. 1 team the final four weeks, five times total, in 2019-20.
The AP does not declare a national champion in the sport because of the NCAA Tournament, which has been canceled this year because of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Dayton’s No. 3 finish matches the school’s 1955-56 team for the best finish in program history.
Florida State (26-5) placed fourth in the final poll. Baylor (26-4) placed No. 5 after spending a longer stretch at No. 1 than any other team during the season.
San Diego State (30-2) placed sixth in the AP poll followed by Creighton (24-7), Kentucky (25-6), Michigan State (22-9) and Villanova (24-7).
Duke was 11th, followed by Maryland, Oregon, Louisville, Seton Hall, Virginia, Wisconsin, BYU, Ohio State, Auburn, Illinois, Houston, Butler, West Virginia and Iowa.
USA Today’s final coaches poll, released Monday, had KU finishing No. 1 in the country with 29 first-place votes. Gonzaga was second with three first place votes.
Asked if KU should be declared a national champion, Self said earlier in the week: “This would be the one particular year I’m all for it, without question, but I don’t even put any wishful thinking into that because that is not the way this is all intended to be.”
He stated if KU was named a national champion because of any polls there’d be a “huge asterisk.”
He’d like to find a way to recognize his team for the season it had.
“Nobody in America had a better season than we did,” Self said. “How do you give credit to that effort and have it be recognized? And I don’t know exactly how we do it. Do we do it within our own fan base? Do we do it within podcasts or whatnot? Whatever we’ve come up with so far pales in comparison to the accolades they deserve.”
The National Association of Basketball Coaches has not determined yet whether or how it will recognize teams following the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament, an NABC source told The Star. The NABC typically awards its national championship trophy — a Waterford Crystal basketball — to the winning team and coach following the NCAA Tournament championship game.
The NABC’s Board of Directors has set a conference call for Monday, the source said, to discuss the topic.
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Kansas Jayhawks voted No. 1 in final Associated Press college basketball poll."
