Tennessee held onto No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the second consecutive week, though No. 2 Auburn closed the gap as the top five remained unchanged in the men's college basketball poll Monday.
The Volunteers received 50 first-place votes from the national media panel after wins over Miami and Illinois pushed coach Rick Barnes' program to 10-0 for only the fifth time in school history. Auburn picked up nine first-place votes from last week and had 12 total. Iowa State, Duke and Kentucky rounded out the top five.
Tennessee is among five unbeatens left in men's Division I basketball and one of three from the Southeastern Conference, joining No. 7 Florida (10-0)and No. 14 Oklahoma (10-0). Drake (9-0) and Utah State (10-0) also enter this week undefeated.
“We know watching film there's a lot of areas we have to get better with, more consistent,” Barnes said Monday. “It's everybody. Coaches getting better, players getting better. When you're in December, you have to be real. Look at film and realize we've done this or that, but we have a long way to go to be where we want to be.”
Auburn improved to 9-1 with its 91-53 blowout of Ohio State in Atlanta. Johni Broome showed the way with 21 points and 20 rebounds for the Tigers' first 20-20 game in 35 years, then he raced back to Auburn for his graduation Saturday night.
“They may be the best team in the country right now,” Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said. “They have a lot of experience, and they made us pay when we made a mistake.”
The SEC continued to dominate the Top 25 with the Vols and Tigers joined by Kentucky, No. 6 Alabama and No. 7 Florida in giving the league five of the top seven. Kansas moved up two spots to No. 8 while Marquette and Oregon rounded out the top 10.
Two-time defending national champion UConn jumped seven spots to No. 11 after beating then-No. 8 Gonzaga. The Huskies were followed by Texas A&M, the Bulldogs, the Sooners and Houston, which remained at No. 15.
Purdue dropped five spots to No. 16 after its loss to the Aggies, and was followed by Ole Miss, UCLA, Cincinnati and Michigan State. Dayton entered the poll for the first time this season at No. 22, just behind Memphis, which returned after its win over Clemson. Wisconsin dropped out after its loss to Illinois while Mississippi State fell out after a narrow win over McNeese State.
San Diego State, Michigan and Clemson round out the Top 25.
Drake appeared on 11 ballots after an easy win over St. Ambrose kept first-year coach Ben McCollum's club unbeaten. Utah State showed up on 10 ballots after blowing out South Florida to give the Aggies their best start in school history.
“I've said all along, this is a place you can win at a high level consistently, and we've shown that, right? Year after year,” Utah State coach Jarrod Calhoun said. “We never talk about making history. It was never talked about all week. ... It's about getting better each day. It's about enjoying the process."
UConn made the biggest jump this week, climbing seven spots to No. 11 after beating Gonzaga. UCLA climbed six spots to No. 18 after beating Arizona for its eighth straight win, while Texas A&M moved up five spots to No. 12.
Michigan plummeted 10 places to No. 24 after blowing its halftime lead in an 89-87 loss to Arkansas in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden. Clemson fell nine spots to No. 25 while Gonzaga and Purdue each dropped five spots.
Memphis spent a week at No. 16 earlier this year before a loss to Arkansas State. They returned while Dayton made its season debut at the expense of Wisconsin and Mississippi State, which received the most votes of those outside the Top 25.
The SEC has eight teams in the Top 25 along with the first three outside the poll in Mississippi State, Arkansas and Missouri. The Big Ten has five, the Big 12 has four, and the ACC and Big East two apiece. Nine leagues had a ranked team.
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Tennessee's Igor Miličić Jr. dunks during an NCAA college basketball game against Illinois, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/Craig Pessman)
Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him from their base in western Syria after it came under attack.
“I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said. The comments posted to his Facebook on Monday are the first by Assad since he was overthrown on Dec. 8 by jihadi-led Syrian rebels, who are now working to establish security and start a political transition.
Israel has been pounding what it says are military sites in Syria after the dramatic collapse of Assad’s rule, wiping out air defenses and most of the arsenal of the Syrian army. Israeli troops have also seized a border buffer zone, sparking condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria for a land grab.
Here is the latest:
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he “had a very good talk” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I gave warning that if these hostages aren’t home by that date all hell’s going to break out,” Trump said, repeating his threat on social media about releasing the Israeli captives in Gaza by the time he takes office next month.
Appearing before the news media at his Florida estate on Monday, Trump deflected a question about conversations he may have had with Russia Vladimir Putin since winning the election in November. Instead, he said he would talk about Netanyahu.
“It was a recap call more than anything else,” Trump added. He did not say when he spoke with Netanyahu.
DAMASCUS — The U.N. envoy to Syria was in Damascus on Monday, holding meetings with the country’s new rebel leaders and meeting with families whose loved ones disappeared into an notorious prison during the rule of ousted President Bashar Assad.
Geir Pedersen reaffirmed the U.N.’s commitment to supporting the Syrian people in the wake of Assad’s sudden overthrow by jihadi-led rebels.
Pedersen met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the main insurgent group, and Mohammed Bashir, Syria’s interim prime minister who previously led the government in rebel-held territory.
The post-Assad transition has been surprisingly smooth. Reports of reprisals, revenge killings and sectarian violence have been minimal. Still, Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious communities, and many of them fear the possibility that Sunni Islamist extremists will take over.
Pedersen also toured the cold concrete halls of Saydnaya Prison, long referred to as “the slaughterhouse” under Assad's rule.
“Hopefully, what we see here is now a closed chapter in Syria’s history,” Pedersen said in a statement, after speaking with people whose relatives were detained or went missing.
Tens of thousands of people came to the prison last week looking for their family members, but only a few dozen detainees were found inside. One relative asked Pedersen on Monday if the U.N. could bring special equipment to help search for chambers hidden beneath the prison.
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not testify Tuesday in his ongoing corruption trial, after his lawyers requested his testimony be cancelled.
He testified in court Sunday and he is expected to return on Wednesday. Netanyahu took the stand for the first time in his long-running corruption trial last week, becoming the only sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant.
Netanyahu will answer to charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. Netanyahu, 75, denies wrongdoing, saying the charges are a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased legal system out to topple his lengthy rule.
The testimony is set to take place six hours a day, three days a week for several weeks, and will take up a significant chunk of Netanyahu’s working hours as he faces Israel's ongoing war in Gaza as well as developments in Syria and Lebanon.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said a projectile launched from Yemen triggered sirens across the Tel Aviv metropolitan area on Monday afternoon.
The projectile was intercepted outside of Israel’s borders, the military said, without providing details on what type of projectile was intercepted.
There were no reports of casualties or major damage, according to Israel’s emergency services.
The Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels, known as the Houthis, have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but nearly all of those weapons have been intercepted.
In July, an Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis struck Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 10 others. Israel responded with a wave of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen, including the port city of Hodeidah.
The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden — attacks they say won't stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack.
The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by insurgent groups.
Assad said in a statement on his Facebook page that he left Damascus on the morning of Dec. 8, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. He said he left in coordination with Russian allies to the Russian base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he planned to keep fighting.
Assad said that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to move him on the night of Dec. 8 to Russia. “I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said.
“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge nor was such proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said in the English text of his statement. “The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”
Health officials in the Gaza Strip say the death toll from the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas militants has reached 45,028 people.
The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It said more than half of the fatalities were women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The Health Ministry also said 106,962 have been wounded since the start of the war.
ANKARA, Turkey — A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said Monday the decision marked a “new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation,” adding that Ankara was concerned that the move would harm efforts to establish peace and stability in Syria.
“The international community must show the necessary reaction to Israel and ensure that the illegal activities of (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s government come to an end,” the statement read.
Qatar also condemned the decision, calling it “a new episode in a series of Israeli aggressions on Syrian territories and a blatant violation of international law.”
The Israeli government approved Netanyahu’s plan on Sunday with the aim to encourage population growth in the area.
Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it, though the international community except for the U.S. regards it as occupied. Israeli figures show the remote territory is home to about 50,000 people, about half of them Jewish Israelis and the other half Arab Druze, many of whom still consider themselves Syrians.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In central Gaza’s Nuseirat urban refugee camp, mourners carried Monday the body of Ahmad Baker Al-Louh, 39, a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera, from the hospital through the streets. His blue bulletproof vest rested atop him.
Al-Louh was killed the day before in a strike on a point for Gaza’s civil defense agency and Al Jazeera said had been covering rescue operations of a family wounded in an earlier bombing when he was killed.
Sunday’s strike also killed three civil defense workers, including the local head of the agency, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The civil defense is Gaza’s main rescue agency and operates under the Hamas-run government.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The 10 included a family of four, Palestinian medics said Monday, as the Israel-Hamas war raged on for the 14th month in the Gaza Strip.
The strike late Sunday hit a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shijaiyah neighborhood, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. Rescuers recovered the bodies of 10 people from under the rubble, including those of two parents and their two children, it said.
DAMASCUS, Syria — The U.S. Embassy in Damascus advised Americans to leave Syria, saying the security situation there continues to be volatile and unpredictable with armed conflict and “terrorism throughout the country."
The embassy, which has been closed since 2012, posted a statement on X, warning U.S. citizens who were unable to leave the country to prepare “contingency plans for emergency situations.” It didn't give further details.
The statement also said that the U.S. government is unable to provide any routine or emergency consular services to U.S. citizens and those who need “emergency assistance to depart should contact the U.S. Embassy in the country they plan to enter.”
Sleeper cells of the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for deadly attacks over the past months in different parts of Syria. Despite their defeat in March 2019, the extremists still pose a threat in the war-torn country.
DAMASCUS, Syria — The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported early Monday that Israeli airstrikes pounded missile warehouses and other former Syrian army sites along Syria’s coast in the “most violent strikes in the Syrian coast region since the beginning of the (Israeli) strikes in 2012.”
The Israeli military declined to comment on the strikes.
The observatory said that “violent explosions” were heard in the coastal city of Tartous “as a result of the successive strikes and the flying of ground-to-ground missiles from the warehouses.”
Palestinians, wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, receive treatment at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian, wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, arrives at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian youth clash with Palestinian security forces on the third day of a raid, outside the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024.(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).
A officer from the Palestinian Authority clutches his gun as Palestinian security forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024.(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).
Syrian fighters watch Russian armoured vehicles driving past near the Hmeimim Air Base, a Syrian airbase currently operated by Russia, in the town of Hmeimim, southeast of Latakia, Syria, Monday Dec. 16, 2024.(AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A Russian aircraft takes off at the Hmeimim Air Base, a Syrian airbase currently operated by Russia, located southeast of the city of Latakia in the town of Hmeimim, Syria, Monday Dec. 16, 2024.(AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli bulldozers maneuver near the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Israeli soldiers stand on an armoured vehicle after crossing the security fence near the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Geir Pederson, the United Nations' special envoy to Syria, center, listens to a woman who was looking for her missing relative in the Saydnaya prison, during his visit to the infamous Saydnaya military prison, in Saydnaya north of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Destroyed Syrian naval vessels from previous Israeli airstrikes are seen in the port of Latakia, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, carry one of several bodies and human remains that were found dropped at an open field on a road that links to Damascus international airport, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
FILE - Israeli soldiers cross the security fence moving towards the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights from Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File )
An Israeli bulldozer maneuvers on the buffer zone near the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from Syria, viewed from the town of Majdal Shams, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
An Israeli armoured vehicle crosses the security fence moving towards the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
