Minnesota is off to its best start in 17 games and earned its first ranking since 2019 on Monday, entering the Associated Press women's basketball poll at No. 24.

The Golden Gophers have won 16 of their first 17 contests, with the loss coming against Nebraska last month. They are ranked for the first time since Dec. 30, 2019. Next up is a matchup at No. 8 Maryland on Tuesday.

UCLA, South Carolina, Notre Dame and the USC Trojans kept rolling, holding the top four spots again in the AP Top 25. The Bruins received 29 of the 31 first-place votes from a national media panel. The Fighting Irish, who were missing All-America guard Hannah Hidalgo in their most recent game because of a foot injury, got the other two top votes.

Undefeated LSU moved up one spot to fifth. The Tigers, along with the Bruins and No. 9 Ohio State, are the only three unbeaten teams left in Division I women's basketball.

UConn was sixth, with Texas falling two places to seventh after a 67-50 loss at South Carolina on Sunday.

TCU moved up one spot to 10th.

Dropping out

Iowa and Michigan fell out of the poll this week. The two Big Ten schools suffered losses last week. The Wolverines had a difficult stretch over the past few weeks, with games against No. 1 UCLA, No. 4 USC and No. 9 Ohio State that were all losses. Michigan did beat Purdue on Saturday. Iowa lost to Illinois and Indiana last week.

Ranked Cowgirls

No. 24 Oklahoma State entered the poll for the first time since 2018 after knocking off then-No. 17 West Virginia on Saturday. The Cowgirls have gone 14-2 this season and are on the road at Houston and UCF this week before hosting the No. 10 TCU Horned Frogs on Jan. 22.

Rising Bears

California moved up six spots to No. 18 after beating No. 21 NC State and Florida State last week. The Bears have their highest ranking since they were 18th on Dec. 31, 2018.

Conference breakdown

The SEC has seven teams ranked this week, with the Big Ten and ACC right behind with six each. The Big 12 has five and the Big East one.

Games of the week

No. 23 Utah at No. 10 TCU, Friday. The Utes stumbled in their first game this season as a ranked team, getting routed by then-No. 12 Kansas State. Now Utah will face another tall task, this one against Sedona Prince and the Horned Frogs.

No. 13 Oklahoma at No. 2 South Carolina, Sunday. The Gamecocks continue their stretch of facing five ranked opponents in a row with a game at No. 19 Alabama on Thursday before hosting the Sooners this weekend.

Penn State junior standout running backs Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton both announced Monday that they will be returning to the Nittany Lions for the 2025 season.

"We still have goals we want to reach as a team, and I want to be alongside my teammates as we reach those goals," Singleton wrote in his announcement.

Allen, meanwhile, said that "it's clear that we still have a lot more to accomplish."

ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. had ranked Allen and Singleton as the Nos. 5 and 6 running backs available in the upcoming NFL draft.

This past season, the two teamed up to give Penn State one of college football's top rushing duos -- Allen rushed for 1,108 yards and eight touchdowns while averaging 5.0 yards per carry; Singleton rushed for 1,099 yards with 12 touchdowns and ranked fourth in the Big Ten with 6.4 yards per carry.

Singleton also led Big Ten running backs with 375 receiving yards on 41 receptions.

Singleton ran for three touchdowns in Penn State's 27-24 loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals Thursday. Allen rushed for 134 yards in the Nittany Lions' quarterfinal victory over Boise State on Dec. 31.

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar previously announced he was coming back. With Allen and Singleton joining him, the Nittany Lions will enter next season with one of the country's most prolific and experienced backfields.

Auburn has climbed to No. 1 in The Associated Press men's basketball poll for its second stint at the top in program history, while fellow Southeastern Conference program Georgia is in the rankings for the first time in 14 years.

Bruce Pearl's Tigers (15-1) claimed 60 of 62 first-place votes to rise one spot Monday after previous No. 1 Tennessee suffered its first loss of the season, falling at Florida, to end a five-week reign at the top. Auburn has been No. 1 only once before in the AP Top 25, during a three-week stint in January and February of 2022, and is the third team to sit atop the poll this season.

Auburn's only loss came at Duke in early December and the Tigers have won eight straight games, though there is no word on when star forward Johni Broome might be ready to play after suffering an ankle injury in Saturday's win over South Carolina.

The Tigers' rise made them the headliner in another SEC-heavy poll, with the league having nine teams in the AP Top 25 -- including three of the top five and five of the top 10.

Iowa State rose one spot to No. 2, reaching its highest ranking in program history, followed by Duke, Alabama and Florida. The Blue Devils and Gators each claimed a first-place vote.

The top tier

The Volunteers (15-1) had been No. 1 since Dec. 9 and stood as Division I's last unbeaten team before a 30-point loss to Florida. They recovered by beating Texas but still tumbled five spots to No. 6.

Marquette was next at No. 7 as the only team to stay at the same spot from last week, followed by Kentucky, preseason No. 1 Kansas and Houston to round out the top 10.

Rising

No. 12 Michigan State and No. 20 Michigan had the week's biggest jumps, both rising four spots. Florida and No. 17 Purdue were next by climbing three positions.

In all, 15 teams that were ranked last week moved up in the latest poll.

Falling

While Tennessee's tumble was notable, No. 19 Illinois had the week's biggest slide by falling six spots after a weekend home loss to USC.

Two-time reigning national champion UConn matched the Volunteers' five-spot decline, checking in at No. 14 after last week's loss at Villanova.

Six teams that were ranked last week moved down in Monday's poll.

Welcome

No. 23 Georgia Bulldogs, No. 24 Wisconsin and No. 25 Baylor were the week's additions. And for Georgia, it has been a while.

Mike White's Bulldogs (14-2) have their first AP Top 25 ranking since spending a week at No. 24 in January 2011. That lone appearance had stood as the program's only time being ranked since the 2002-03 season, but the Bulldogs are coming off a week that featured wins against then-No. 6 Kentucky and then-No. 17 Oklahoma for the program's first back-to-back victories against ranked opponents since the 2006-07 season.

Both the Badgers and Bears have spent multiple weeks in the poll this season.

Farewell (for now)

West Virginia (No. 21) and UCLA (No. 22) joined the Sooners in falling out of this week's poll.

Conference watch

The SEC -- which had 10 ranked teams Dec. 23 and Dec. 30 -- had nine ranked teams for the fifth time this season, including No. 11 Texas A&M, No. 15 Mississippi State and No. 21 Mississippi.

The Big Ten was next with six, followed by the Big 12 with four. The Big East had two, followed by the Atlantic Coast, West Coast, American Athletic and Mountain West conferences with one each.

LiAngelo Ball has signed a deal with Def Jam and Universal Music Group, a representative from his label Born2Ball Music Group says.

Sources told ESPN the deal is worth as much as $13 million, with $8 million guaranteed, and gives Ball full ownership of music and his own record label. Ball has a second song to follow the debut of "Tweaker" in the near future as well.

Ball, the middle brother of Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball and Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball, went unselected in the 2018 NBA draft. He signed training camp deals in 2020 (Detroit Pistons), 2021 (Hornets) and 2022 (Hornets) but never made a regular-season roster. He averaged 4.4 points, 1.1 rebounds and 13.1 minutes in 31 NBA G League games for the Greensboro Swarm from 2021-23.

But he has since refocused his career path to being an artist and musician. The song is described as having an early 2000s rap and modern hip-hop feel and was released Jan. 3 on the WorldstarHipHop YouTube page and has earned nearly 8 million views as of Jan. 13.

The Ball family isn't new to rap. Lonzo has already released a few songs, including "Zo2," which was used to promote his Big Baller Brand signature shoe. LiAngelo's track, though, is getting a lot more attention, with Lonzo already proclaiming 2025 the "year of G[elo]."

Cleared of wrongdoing by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), Sinner's case will be heard at Cas following an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), which is seeking a ban of up to two years.

Sinner successfully argued that he was inadvertently contaminated by his physiotherapist after he twice tested positive for the steroid clostebol.

Since the doping test was made public, Sinner has gone on to win the US Open and season-ending ATP Finals in a stellar 2024 season.

However, some players have criticised the handling of Sinner's case - and that of former world number one Iga Swiatek - with Australia's Nick Kyrgios describing them as "disgusting" for tennis.

Sinner's first-round opponent in Melbourne, Jarry, was banned for 11 months after testing positive for anabolic agents in 2020.

The Chilean said he wished he had received the same support from the tennis authorities as Sinner has following his own failed tests.

"What I can say is that I would have liked the same treatment as the things that I went through," said world number 36 Jarry.

"I don't think it was the same, so that's all. What I can say is that it's tough for me to play against him."

Casual tennis observers might still be wondering where Fearnley has appeared from.

Little more than a year ago, the Briton was unranked in the professional game and still playing in the "brutal" United States college tennis system where he developed his aggressive game.

Finishing his kinesiology degree at Texas Christian University in April was the point when he decided it was time to move into the professional ranks.

Then came the stunning rise played out at warp speed.

Winning five ATP Challenger events last year propelled him into the top 100 and enabled him to qualify directly for the Australian Open main draw.

Landing Kyrgios was the reward, but it remained to be seen how Fearnley would cope with what was expected to be a partisan atmosphere.

Despite admitting he felt "anxious", he hoped his experiences of college tennis - all noise, trash-talking and team bonding - would stand him in good stead.

Fearnley looked calm from the start and clear in his thinking.

"I knew that I couldn't really show any emotion because I felt that the crowd was just going to eat that alive," he said.

Kyrgios was unable to regularly unleash his huge serve and Fearnley was regularly able to get into the receiving points.

That allowed him to take control of the first-set tie-break, race away with the second set and move a break up in the third.

Fearnley's serve was also rock solid. He dropped just five points on serve in the opening two sets before Kyrgios broke for the only time to take the third into another tie-break which Fearnley dominated.

Murray, often found berating his own coaching box and shouting at himself on court as a player, cut a composed figure in Djokovic's box on Rod Laver.

All eyes were on the coaching pod - a new innovation at the Australian Open which allows players to have coaching staff courtside - where Murray sat with three other members of Djokovic's team, offering gentle encouragement as the 24-time Grand Slam champion navigated losing the first set and applauding points won in key moments.

"He gave me some great advice during the match," said Djokovic. "It's really nice to be able to exchange some feedback. It's been a really nice experience, hopefully we don't stop here."

Djokovic, seeded seventh in Melbourne, struggled to find his rhythm in the first set against Basavareddy, making uncharacteristic errors in crucial moments.

The last time Djokovic lost in the first round of a Grand Slam was against Paul Goldstein at the 2006 Australian Open, just a few months after Basavareddy was born.

In a curious full-circle moment, Goldstein went on to become Basavareddy's head coach at Stanford University.

The teenager idolises Djokovic and was impressive as he showed no signs of nervousness as he battled his way to a break of serve and took the opening set.

But as the second set wore on Basavareddy started to cramp and fatigue set in as Djokovic reduced the error count and romped to the second and third sets.

Djokovic and Murray had a lengthy chat before the start of the fourth with the latter appearing to offer advice on Djokovic's backhand and he cruised through the fourth set to take victory.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter says it is up to him and his coaches to get the side out of its current poor run of form.

The Chiefs were thrashed 69-17 by French Top 14 leaders Bordeaux in the Champions Cup on Saturday.

The loss, which saw Exeter concede 11 tries, ended any outside hopes of making the knockout stages.

Exeter opened the scoring thanks to Paul Brown-Bampoe's try, but from then on it was all Bordeaux as the French side went 31-5 up at half-time before adding another 38 points in the second half.

It was the latest defeat in a difficult season for Exeter who have won just one of 13 games across the Premiership and Champions Cup all season.

"I've just said to the coaches we've got to find the ways to get them to get those fundamentals, those foundations, really drilled in and trusting them," Baxter told BBC Radio Devon.

"They give you an in into the game that you then work from, we never established that at all.

"I don't think there was one facet of the game where we could go 'we established a base line to work from'."

Baxter said he felt the Chiefs' scrum improved but the same could not be said for set pieces and lineouts.

"If we'd have come away and said we had 90% lineout ball you could probably knock 30 points off the score, and then it looks a lot different," he said.

"That's just one element of it, and we didn't get that in defence either and we didn't really get it in attack."

Baxter added: "We had our moments and we had enthusiasm in attack and we've created some good scores, but can we really say we had a system or a process that looked like it was really challenging Bordeaux on a regular basis?

"I've probably got to say no, and we've got to get through this. We've got to train our way through it, and we've got to take a lot of responsibility because we've got to get the guys believing in it and doing it regularly and trusting it and trusting each other."

Wales and Scarlets fly-half Sam Costelow will miss the Six Nations after suffering a broken collarbone in his club's Challenge Cup defeat against Gloucester.

The 24-year-old wore the Wales number 10 jersey in their final game of 2024 against South Africa.

Costelow was forced off the field after just 11 minutes at Kingsholm last Friday night and has been ruled out for up to three months as he prepares to have surgery.

He has been replaced by fellow Wales international Ioan Lloyd, who started at full-back.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland names his Six Nations squad on Monday with the opening game against France in Paris on Friday, 31 January.

If they are good enough, they are old enough. What Henry Pollock, who turns 20 on Tuesday, lacks in experience, he certainly makes up for with confidence.

The Northampton flanker has been in bristling, bustling form, relishing every confrontation put in front of him.

An age-grade World Cup winner last summer and a star performer in England A's win over Australia in the autumn, he seems destined for the Test stage.

Maro Itoje, similarly heralded on the pathways, was blooded young and quickly with a call-up to a World Cup training squad at 20 and a Six Nations debut as a 21-year-old. He never looked back.

Bath's Guy Pepper, Sale's Ben Curry and Saints team-mate Tom Pearson might present opposing arguments, but Pollock's two timely tries against Stade Francais on Saturday could put him on a similarly fast track.