Indiana back to No. 1 for third time

MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 18 (UPI) — Indiana is again the No. 1 team in the USA Today Coaches’ basketball poll after a sixth consecutive week in which the previous top-ranked team lost.

Indiana (23-3) collects 19 first-place votes in moving up one spot to the No. 1 position. The Hoosiers were the pre-season No. 1 and held the spot until Dec. 17 when Duke took over.

The Blue Devils were on top for four weeks before losing, starting a string of short tenures at No. 1. Louisville, Duke, Kansas, Indiana and Duke (again) all had one-week runs atop the poll.

The Hoosiers have one game this week — Tuesday at No. 5 Michigan State.

Miami (Fla.) (21-3) jumps past No. 3 Gonzaga (25-2) for the No. 2 spot after pulling in seven first-place votes. Gonzaga receives three top mentions. The other two first-place votes go to fourth-ranked Florida (21-3).

Michigan State (22-4) is up three places to fifth and Duke (22-3) falls to sixth. Michigan (22-4) drops two to No. 7 with Syracuse (21-4) down one to eighth. Kansas (21-4) improves four spots to ninth and Louisville (21-5) comes in 10th.

Georgetown (19-4), unranked three weeks ago, is No. 11 while Arizona (21-4) and Kansas State (20-5) both slip two places to 12th and 13th, respectively. Oklahoma State (19-5) takes the No. 14 slot and Butler (21-5) falls five to 15th.

New Mexico (22-4) moves up to No. 16 with Wisconsin (18-8) coming in 17 ahead of No. 18 Ohio State (18-7), which is down four places this week. Memphis (22-3) rises six places to 19th and Marquette (18-6) remains at No. 20.

Colorado State (21-4) is voted 21st and Pittsburgh (20-6) is 22nd after a week at 17th. Oregon (21-5) and Virginia Commonwealth (21-5) return to the rankings in the Nos. 23 and 24 places, respectively. Notre Dame (20-6) is 25th.

San Diego State and Creighton fall out of the rankings this week.

Michigan State, in addition to playing Indiana, has a Sunday game at Ohio State. Other top games this week have Kansas at Oklahoma State on Wednesday and Georgetown at Syracuse and New Mexico at Colorado State on Saturday,