College Basketball

'It's going to get crazy': What life is like as the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25

Updated Jan. 8, 2024 3:11 p.m. ET

Phil Martelli still remembers, nearly two decades later, the exact moment when he realized that the team he was coaching at tiny Saint Joseph's in Philadelphia was about to become the No. 1-ranked team in college basketball.

"I was at home, watching Stanford play somebody in the Pac-10, and they were the other team — they were 1 and we were 2," Martelli said. "And I was watching the game and I realized that they were going to lose, and I remember turning to my wife and saying, ‘Let’s go get something to eat. We're about to be the top team in the country, and it's going to get crazy.'"

They went to Bertucci's, a pizza joint in the Philly suburbs, and had a relatively peaceful dinner. The next morning, they went to Mass, then headed to Staten Island to watch Central Connecticut State, where Martelli's son was an assistant coach.

"Then on Monday," Martelli recalled in an interview with The Associated Press, "I gathered my team. And I said to them, ‘At some point in practice our athletic director, Don DiJulia — he's going to come in and tell us we’re the No. 1 team in the country. But that does not change who we are. There may be more attention on us. Just be ready to be thankful.'"

Indeed, when the fresh AP Top 25 was released on March 8, 2004, the Hawks were No. 1.

The stay would be brief — they lost to Xavier that week in the Atlantic 10 Tournament — but it left an indelible impression on Martelli and the entire program. Saint Joseph's had become one of just 61 schools to ever reach No. 1 in the 75-year history of The Associated Press men's basketball poll, even if it was destined to become one of seven to be there for a single week.

"It's funny," said Martelli, now an assistant coach at Michigan. "I remember right where I was sitting. I have this little den off my family room, and I sat in that den and I was like, ‘I cannot believe this is going to happen.’"

Martelli saw reaching No. 1 as validation for a program that had some success in the 1960s but had never achieved national acclaim. Other coaches, players and fans tend to view reaching No. 1 through much different lenses.

Duke has spent 145 weeks there, more than any program in poll history, and UCLA once spent 46 consecutive weeks on top, a record that might never be broken. For them, and schools such as Kentucky and North Carolina, it might not be such a big deal.

For a school like Saint Joseph's or city rival Villanova? It's a truly big deal.

It brings national attention to the school, and with that flows donations and fan support. Games are suddenly sold out, tip-offs are dictated by television, and merchandise and ticket sales help the bottom line for the entire athletic department.

Jay Wright remembers the first time Villanova reached the top spot. For all the success the Wildcats had under Rollie Massimino, including the 1985 national championship, they had never been No. 1 until Feb. 8, 2016.

"I do remember the excitement of everybody saying it's the first time. I remember that," said Wright, who led the Wildcats to the national title that season, and another two years later, and now serves as a TV analyst following his 2022 retirement.

"I remember the first time we broke into the top 20," he continued. "I remember my wife and kids made a little poster for me when I walked in the garage door. Had it on the garage door: 'Top 20 Congratulations, Daddy.' That was the first time we were in the top 20 in the AP Top 25, you know, in our tenure at Villanova. That was a big deal."

The beauty of college basketball is that the champion is decided on the court, rather than the court of public opinion. Ever since its inception in 1949, the AP Top 25 has generated season-long debate over who is best in the land — and then the teams sort things out at tournament time.

In fact, the last team to enter the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 1 and actually win it was Kentucky in 2012. It's only happened four times since the tourney expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Yet having the "1" next to a school's name on TV and in newspapers and on websites means something to those who spend their careers striving for excellence. And it means something to the fans who so passionately follow those teams.

"I do think fans care about it more than players. The coaches are the last on that list," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said with a laugh. "But it is an honor. I do respect it. And I coach more for the fans and the players than I do for myself."

Izzo acknowledged an undeniable pressure that comes with being No. 1. More people are paying attention, nobody wants to get knocked from the pedestal once they reach it, yet every opposing team walking through the door will have put a little extra into preparing for a game against the nation's top-ranked team.

"We were the No. 1 team at Louisville and Kentucky," said Rick Pitino, now the coach at St. John's, "and I will say, the ‘96 pressure was as much pressure as I’ve experienced at Kentucky and Louisville that year, because it was a given from start to finish that we were the prohibitive favorite to win it all, and every night you had to bring it."

The Wildcats actually spent most of that season at No. 2 after an early loss to UMass. But they avenged the defeat in the NCAA Tournament, then lived up to all those expectations by beating Syracuse in the championship game.

"It was always a big deal for us," Wright said of becoming No. 1. "I know our school talked about benefiting from it, that people were talking about your university every week, which is really the main goal of sports on a college campus: to market the university. And the poll is huge in that your name is out there nationally, all week, you know? For consecutive weeks. And we felt like that was just great for us and our program, but really beneficial for the university."

Reporting by The Associated Press.