March 15, 2009
| Rank | School (first place votes) | Record | Points | Rank |
| 1 | Louisville (14) | 28-5 | 752 | 5 |
| 2 | Memphis (11) | 31-3 | 728 | 3 |
| 3 | North Carolina (6) | 28-4 | 727 | 1 |
| 4 | Pittsburgh | 28-4 | 692 | 2 |
| 5 | Duke | 28-6 | 638 | 8 |
| 6 | Connecticut | 27-4 | 621 | 4 |
| 7 | Michigan State | 26-6 | 569 | 6 |
| 8 | Oklahoma | 27-5 | 541 | 7 |
| 9 | Missouri | 28-6 | 505 | 15 |
| 10 | Gonzaga | 26-5 | 488 | 12 |
| 11 | Wake Forerst | 24-6 | 429 | 9 |
| 12 | Villanova | 26-7 | 402 | 13 |
| 13 | Kansas | 25-7 | 400 | 11 |
| 14 | Washington | 25-8 | 389 | 10 |
| 15 | Syracuse | 26-9 | 373 | 20 |
| 16 | Florida State | 25-9 | 293 | 22 |
| 17 | UCLA | 25-8 | 243 | 14 |
| 18 | Purdue | 25-9 | 231 | 24 |
| 19 | Arizona State | 24-9 | 212 | 23 |
| 20 | LSU | 26-7 | 192 | 16 |
| 21 | Clemson | 23-8 | 132 | 18 |
| 22 | Xavier | 25-7 | 124 | 19 |
| 23 | Butler | 26-5 | 1104 | 17 |
| 24 | Marquette | 24-9 | 80 | 29 |
| 25 | Utah State | 30-4 | 40 | NR |
Dropped out: No. 25 Illinois.
Others receiving votes: Illinois (24-9) 37; Ohio State (22-10) 31; Utah (24-9) 26; Southern California (21-12) 24; West Virginia (23-11) 22; Brigham Young (25-7) 7; Saint Mary's (26-6) 6; Temple (22-11) 5; Texas (22-11) 4; Mississippi State (23-12) 3; Tennessee (21-12) 3; Siena (26-7) 2.
A final overall poll will be taken immediately following the national championship game and should be available for an early-afternoon release (Eastern Time) on April 7.
The USA TODAY/ESPN Board of Coaches is made up of 31 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. This season's board: Mike Adras, Northern Arizona; Dana Altman, Creighton; Tommy Amaker, Harvard; Tevester Anderson, Jackson State; Ronnie Arrow, South Alabama; Randy Bennett, Saint Mary's; Eddie Biedenbach, North Carolina-Asheville; Jim Boeheim, Syracuse; Rick Byrd, Belmont; Charles Coles, Miami (Ohio); Steve Fisher, San Diego State; Tim Floyd, Southern California; Greg Graham, Boise State; Tom Green, Fairleigh Dickinson; Rob Jeter, Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Jeff Jones, American; Billy Kennedy, Murray State; Dan Leibovitz, Hartford; Fran McCaffery, Siena; Mike McConathy, Northwestern State; Bob McKillop, Davidson; Phil Martelli, Saint Joseph's; Ron "Fang" Mitchell, Coppin State; Matt Painter, Purdue; Tom Pecora, Hofstra; John Pelphrey, Arkansas; Doc Sadler, Nebraska; Scott Sutton, Oral Roberts; Bob Williams, UC-Santa Barbara; Gary Williams, Maryland; Doug Wojcik, Tulsa.
