UK moves up two spots, Louisville drops in AP men’s basketball poll

Kentucky’s men’s basketball team advanced from 15th to 13th in this week’s Associated Press poll.

UK, which hosts Tennessee on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, defeated LSU and Alabama last week to improve to 20-5 overall and 10-2 in Southeastern Conference play.

Louisville (20-5, 8-4 Atlantic Coast) dropped four spots to eighth. The Cardinals lost at Virginia and defeated Miami last week.

Gonzaga is No. 1 for the third straight week.

The Zags (26-0, 14-0 West Coast), the lone unbeaten team in Division I, received 60 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel on Monday.

Villanova (24-2, 11-2 Big East), which received the other five first-place votes, and Kansas held second and third, while Baylor moved from sixth to fourth.

The top four teams matched those announced Saturday as the preliminary No. 1 seeds by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, although its order was Villanova, Kansas, Baylor and Gonzaga.

Arizona jumped from ninth to fifth and was followed by fellow Pac-12 members UCLA and Oregon, while Louisville, West Virginia and North Carolina rounded out the top 10.

Notre Dame returns to the poll at No. 25 after being out for one week. The Fighting Irish replace Xavier.

Wisconsin dropped from seventh to 11th and was followed by Duke, Kentucky, Virginia, Florida, Purdue, Florida State, Cincinnati, SMU and Creighton.

The last five ranked teams were South Carolina, Saint Mary’s, Maryland, Butler and Notre Dame.

It was another week of losses by ranked teams, with 12 of the top 25 losing last week.

The week’s biggest jump and fall came from the same game. SMU moved from 25th to No. 19 and Cincinnati dropped from 11th to No. 18 after the Mustangs ended the Bearcats’ 15-game winning streak on Sunday. Duke, which beat North Carolina and Clemson last week, also moved up six places, from 18th to No. 12.

Notre Dame, which was ranked for nine weeks before dropping out last week, returns to the poll after beating Florida State on Saturday.

Xavier, which has been beset by injuries, dropped out from 24th after losing to Villanova. The Musketeers were ranked seventh in the preseason poll and returned last week after being out of one poll.

The ACC leads the way with six ranked teams while the Big East, Big 12, Pac-12, Big Ten and Southeastern Conference all have three.

Kansas will have two games against ranked teams this week, Monday against West Virginia and Saturday at Baylor.

Other double-ranked games are Duke at Virginia on Wednesday, Virginia at North Carolina on Saturday and Maryland at Wisconsin on Sunday.

This story was originally published February 13, 2017 at 12:27 PM with the headline "UK moves up two spots, Louisville drops in AP men’s basketball poll."