Five takeaways from AP Top 25 men's basketball poll

There was a lot of movement in the first Associated Press Top 25 men's college basketball poll of the season, highlighted by a new No. 1 team at the top.

Here are five takeaways from this week's poll, which was released on Monday:

Houston overtakes Purdue for top spot

Both teams are 2-0 through one week, but the Cougars, despite only receiving half as many first-place votes as the Boilermakers, earned three more points total to claim the top spot.

Houston had a straightforward opening-week schedule, but took care of business against Lehigh and Towson while Purdue struggled to put Oakland away on Friday. Senior guard Emanuel Sharp is leading the way (16.5 PPG, five RPG), but freshmen Kingston Flemings (14 PPG) and Chris Cenac Jr. (seven PPG, 11.5 RPG) have also impressed early on.

The Cougars face No. 22 Auburn on Sunday and the Boilermakers square off with No. 8 Alabama on Thursday, so it will become clear by the end of the week if either are deserving of the top spot.

Arizona, Alabama make opening-week statements

It is always easy to overreact this early in the season, but it is difficult to ignore what these two teams did. The Wildcats (2-0) put up 93 on the defending-champion Florida Gators courtesy of freshman Koa Peat's sensational debut and jumped eight spots to No. 5.

The Crimson Tide (2-0) used an offensive outburst to down then-No. 5 St. John's. The win moved Alabama up seven spots to No. 8 and the 103 points scored were the program's most against a top-10 opponent in its history.

The schedules do not get any easier for either team in the coming weeks, but those are some marquee wins early in the season that show these two teams could be difficult outs throughout the 2025-26 campaign.

Florida falls seven spots after loss

The Gators did not get off to a great start to their title defense with a 93-87 loss to Arizona, dropping them down to No. 10 in the rankings. The Gators are the first reigning champion to lose its season opener since Syracuse in 2003-04 and the fourth reigning champion to start 0-1 in the past 30 seasons.

The Gators (1-1) bounced back with an emphatic 104-64 win over North Florida. Despite all the roster turnover from last season, Florida has a clear size advantage, so the key is going to be staying out of foul trouble and getting more stops defensively than it did in the opener.

Michigan State moves up after picking up signature win

Tom Izzo's Spartans played host to John Calipari's 14th-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday night and got the best of them in a 69-66 win. That was Michigan State's fifth straight regular-season win over a top-15 opponent, extending the nation's longest active streak.

The Spartans were awful from three (1-of-14) in the win over Arkansas, but made up for it with 46 points in the paint and 18 free throws off 21 Arkansas fouls, something they must continue to do if the shot-making remains an issue.

North Carolina rises after taking down Kansas

The Tar Heels snapped a five-game losing streak to the Jayhawks on Friday night in an 87-74 win, moving them up seven spots to No. 18. A big second-half rally and performance from North Carolina freshman Caleb Wilson was enough to outduel Kansas and freshman sensation Darryn Peterson to give the Tar Heels a signature win after a disappointing couple of seasons in Chapel Hill.