(AP)- When the first AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll was published in January 1949, Saint Louis was installed at No. 1 ahead of mighty Kentucky, thanks to a headto- head win a few weeks earlier in New Orleans.
The poll did exactly what was intended, and what it has continued to do for 75 years: It sparked debate.
Were the Billikens of coach Eddie Hickey — the defending NIT champions at a tim…