Florida, after avoiding the upset bug that latched onto the rest of the top five in the last week, moved into the No. 1 spot in the ESPN/USA Today men's college basketball coaches' poll for the first time in school history.

The Gators' ranking will be challenged almost immediately by No. 7 Kentucky, on Tuesday night in Lexington.

The Gators (18-2) received 16 of the 31 first-place votes and 753 points Monday, ending Arizona's two-week run at the top. It is Florida's best ranking since reaching No. 2 in January 2002 and finishing there to end the 1999-2000 season. That year, the Gators lost to Michigan State in the national championship game.

Florida made the jump from fourth to first after winning twice last week to match the longest winning streak in school history at 14 games. The Gators made the same move in The Associated Press media poll, receiving 50 of 72 first-place votes and 1,764 points.

"I'm very, very happy for our players and the school," Florida coach Billy Donovan said Monday. "But at the same time, it's a ranking that has been given to us that I don't know if we are deserving of or not.

"There is a lot of basketball left to be played, and we have a big one coming up with Kentucky. We have another big game with Alabama on Saturday following UK. We as a team are still striving to get better. I still believe that we can improve. But as far as the program is concerned, it's a tremendous honor."

Florida is the second member of the SEC to hold the top spot in a poll this season. Alabama was AP's No. 1 before an early-season loss to Utah.

Second-ranked Arizona (16-2), upset by unranked Pac-10 rival Stanford, received eight first-place votes and totaled 14 fewer points than Florida in the coaches' poll.

Texas (14-3, five first-place votes) held its ground at No. 3 after losing at Kansas last Monday and then ending Oklahoma State's 15-game winning streak. Pittsburgh (15-2, one first-place vote) fell two spots to fourth. With the No. 1 ranking on the line, the Panthers lost to Syracuse in the final seconds Saturday.

Oklahoma (15-3) moved up a noth to fifth. No. 6 Louisville (16-1) also received a first-place vote -- the Cardinals earned four by AP, where they're ranked fifth -- and was followed in the top 10 by Kentucky (16-3), Maryland (14-4), Duke (14-3) and Notre Dame (18-3).

Louisville is the only team in the poll with one loss.

Kansas (15-5), which rallied to beat Texas at home last Monday, led off the second 10. The Jayhawks were followed by Oklahoma State (17-2), Creighton (19-2), Marquette (15-3), Wake Forest (15-2), Illinois (15-4), Connecticut (13-4), Georgia (13-5), Xavier (15-4) and the Crimson Tide (13-5).

Syracuse (14-3), Missouri (13-4), Oregon (15-5), Mississippi State (13-5) and Purdue (14-4) completed the Top 25. Indiana (No. 20) and California (No. 24) were eplaced in the rankings by Syracuse and Purdue.