Voters agree: Florida No. 1

Gators become first unanimous pick in nearly two years

The Florida Gators are No. 1 for the fourth straight week. This time, there’s no doubt about it.

Florida became the first unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press college basketball poll in nearly two years, garnering all 72 first-place votes Monday.

The Gators had 45 first-place votes last week, but the defending national champions benefited from losses by then-No. 2 Wisconsin and No. 3 North Carolina. The last unanimous No. 1 was Illinois in the final poll of 2004-05. The Illini were unanimous in six of the final seven polls that season.

“We’re very honored to be voted a unanimous No. 1 in the nation. I realize it doesn’t happen very often,” said Florida coach Billy Donovan. “At the same time, we’re aware that a lot of that has to do with what other teams have done around us. There’s still a long way to go and we’re just trying to get better each day, but it’s certainly always flattering to be No. 1 in the nation.”

Florida (21-2) beat then-No. 24 Vanderbilt, , and Tennessee, 94-78, last week.

UCLA moved up three spots to No. 2 after beating Oregon, 69-57, and routing Oregon State, 82-35, on Saturday. The Bruins finished two points ahead of Ohio State, followed by Wisconsin and North Carolina.

Completing the top 10 were No. 6 Texas A&M, followed by Pittsburgh, Memphis, Kansas University, and Butler.

Marquette starts the second 10 in the rankings, followed by Nevada, Oregon, which dropped four spots after being swept by UCLA and USC, Washington State and Air Force.

Duke took the biggest fall of teams still in the poll, dropping eight spots to No. 16.