Duke ended Auburn’s eight-week stay at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll on Monday, while the Tigers dropped to third behind Houston as all three programs began preparing for their conference tournaments.

The Blue Devils took advantage of back-to-back losses by Auburn to ascend to the top spot for the first time since November 2021, when Duke spent a week there in Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski’s farewell season. The Blue Devils received 52 of 61 votes from the national media panel, while the Cougars picked up five and the Tigers held onto the other four.

“Just my luck to be No. 1 going into the postseason when it really doesn’t matter,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said with a laugh. “We haven’t talked about it one time. We have talked about being No. 1 when this thing is all said and done.”

The Blue Devils, who will be the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament when they begin play in Thursday’s quarterfinals, beat Wake Forest in a rout last week before topping rival North Carolina on Saturday in Chapel Hill.

The Cougars, the top seed in the Big 12 Tournament, climbed to their highest ranking of the season. Auburn fell three spots but will still be the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament, despite its close losses to then-No. 23 Texas A&M and then-No. 7 Alabama.

While some conferences are already crowning champions and awarding NCAA Tournament berths, the ACC and Big 12 are among the power leagues that begin play Tuesday. The Big Ten and SEC tournaments open on Wednesday.

“My standards are probably a little bit different. I think there’s areas we need to continue to get better in,” said Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, whose team rolls into the Big 12 quarterfinals on Thursday riding a 10-game winning streak.

Warriors’ Curry joins alma mater Davidson

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry will serve as an assistant general manager for Davidson College’s basketball teams.

The four-time NBA champion and two-time league MVP will be the first active player in U.S. major professional sports to take an administrative job with a college team. He will continue to play with the Warriors while serving in this newly created role.

Curry and his wife, Ayesha, and longtime Davidson supporters Don, Matt and Erica Berman, are creating an eight-figure fund to support the college’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. The college asked them to serve in these advisory roles, investing their time and sharing their experience with both men’s and women’s basketball, according to a news release on Monday.

Saint Mary’s 74, Pepperdine 59 >> Augustas Marciulionis and Paulius Murauskas each scored 15 points and No. 19 and top-seeded Saint Mary’s defeated No. 9 seed Pepperdine in the West Coast Conference Tournament semifinals Monday night.

The Gaels (28-4) play second-seeded Gonzaga or No. 3 San Francisco in the championship game Tuesday night, with the winner receiving the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Defending tournament champion Saint Mary’s, which has won seven consecutive games and 17 of 18, won’t have to sweat out making the Big Dance for the fourth time in a row.

Pepperdine (13-22) made an unlikely run, beating three higher-seeded teams to set up this meeting.

South Carolina women move to No. 2 in T25

UCLA vaulted back up to No. 1 in The Associated Press women’s basketball Top 25 on Monday after beating USC for the Big Ten title over the weekend.

The Bruins, who spent 12 weeks atop the poll before losing to the rival Trojans in early February, received 16 first-place votes from a national panel to jump from fourth to first. It was the second time this season that the Bruins leaped over a few teams to move up to No. 1. UCLA topped then-No. 1 South Carolina before Thanksgiving to move up four places to claim the top ranking.

South Carolina knocked off previous No. 1 Texas in the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game and moved up to second from fifth in the poll. The Gamecocks garnered nine first-place ballots.

Texas and USC going down marked just the fourth time since the 1999-00 season that the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the poll lost on the same day, according to Stats Perform. It last occurred Nov. 30, 2019, when Oregon was first and Baylor was second.

UConn remained third going into Monday night’s game against No. 22 Creighton for the Big East title. The Huskies received the other seven first-place votes.

Connecticut 70, Creighton 50 >> Paige Bueckers scored 24 points and Azzi Fudd added 13 to help No. 3 UConn beat 22nd-ranked Creighton to win the Big East championship Monday night.

It’s the 23rd Big East title and fifth consecutive one for the Huskies (31-3) since they returned to the conference in 2021. This was Creighton’s first time in the championship game since 2016, when the Bluejays lost to St. John’s.

Lauren Jensen scored 13 points to lead Creighton (26-6).