Kentucky moves up one spot to fourth in national basketball polls

Kentucky moved up one spot to fourth in the Associated Press and the USA Today coaches college basketball polls released Monday.

Villanova and Kansas remain the top two teams in the AP poll, with Gonzaga moving up to third. Villanova was in the top spot among national media, and Kansas was No. 1 for coaches.

The Villanova Wildcats, (19-1) beat Seton Hall and Providence last week, received 35 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel for the AP poll. This is the seventh week on top this season for Villanova.

Kansas (18-1) was No. 1 on 28 AP ballots. Last week, the Jayhawks had 32 first-place votes, compared with 28 for Villanova.

Gonzaga (19-0), the last unbeaten team in Division I, got the other two first-place votes and moved up one spot to third, the Zags’ highest ranking of the season.

Kentucky and Baylor both moved up one place to fourth and fifth, and Florida State jumped from 10th to sixth, the Seminoles’ highest ranking since they were sixth in February 1993.

Arizona had the week’s biggest jump, going from 14th to No. 7 with its win Saturday at UCLA. The loss knocked the Bruins from third to eighth.

North Carolina and Oregon rounded out the Top Ten.

Butler was 11th, followed by Virginia, Louisville, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Creighton, Duke, West Virginia, Cincinnati and Purdue.

The last five teams were Saint Mary’s, Maryland, South Carolina, Xavier and Florida.

The teams that were tied for seventh last week had the worst drops. West Virginia, which lost to Oklahoma and Kansas State, fell 11 spots, while Creighton, which lost to Marquette in its first game since point guard Maurice Watson Jr. suffered a season-ending knee injury, dropped nine places.

Kansas has quite a week coming up. The Jayhawks are at West Virginia on Tuesday and then visit Kentucky on Saturday.

Virginia will also face two ranked opponents on the road: at Notre Dame on Tuesday and at Villanova on Sunday.

The other double-ranked game has Xavier at Cincinnati in their annual crosstown meeting Thursday.

In the coaches’ poll, Kansas had 18 first-place votes to Villanova’s 11. Gonzaga was third. After Kentucky’s fourth-place slot, Baylor, North Carolina, UCLA, Florida State, Arizona and Oregon rounded out the top 10.

This story was originally published January 23, 2017 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Kentucky moves up one spot to fourth in national basketball polls."