Kentucky basketball takes a tumble in Top 25. See where Cats landed.
After a catastrophic week that saw Kentucky blown out by a despised rival and struggle against a mid-major program, the Cats dropped eight spots to No. 10 in The Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll released Monday.
While UK eventually righted the ship to beat Southern Illinois by 12 on Friday night, it looked disjointed and trailed much of that game on the heels of looking completely overmatched against the now No. 1 Duke Blue Devils in an embarrassing 118-84 loss in both teams’ season openers.
Duke supplanted Kansas atop the poll, jumping from fourth to first, after its dominating win against Kentucky. It also gave the Blue Devils a record number of appearances at No. 1 with 135, breaking a tie with UCLA for most all-time.
Duke claimed 48 of 65 first-place votes. The Jayhawks fell to No. 2 despite a quality win of their own against then-No. 10 Michigan State. The Spartans dropped to No. 17.
Gonzaga was third, followed by Virginia and Tennessee to round out the top five.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Top 25
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Nov. 11, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:
| | Record | Pts | Pvs |
1. Duke (48) | 2-0 | 1,606 | 4 |
2. Kansas (14) | 1-0 | 1,571 | 1 |
3. Gonzaga | 2-0 | 1,478 | 3 |
4. Virginia (2) | 2-0 | 1,326 | 5 |
5. Tennessee (1) | 2-0 | 1,306 | 6 |
6. Nevada | 2-0 | 1,277 | 7 |
7. North Carolina | 2-0 | 1,260 | 8 |
8. Villanova | 2-0 | 1,139 | 9 |
9. Auburn | 2-0 | 1,132 | 11 |
10. Kentucky | 1-1 | 1,054 | 2 |
11. Michigan St. | 1-1 | 919 | 10 |
12. Kansas St. | 1-0 | 892 | 12 |
13. Oregon | 2-0 | 739 | 14 |
14. Florida St. | 2-0 | 731 | 17 |
15. Syracuse | 2-0 | 673 | 16 |
16. Virginia Tech | 1-0 | 664 | 15 |
17. Mississippi St. | 2-0 | 549 | 18 |
18. Michigan | 2-0 | 486 | 19 |
19. Clemson | 2-0 | 350 | 22 |
20. UCLA | 2-0 | 340 | 21 |
21. TCU | 2-0 | 323 | 20 |
22. LSU | 2-0 | 248 | 23 |
23. Purdue | 2-0 | 218 | 24 |
24. Marquette | 2-0 | 155 | - |
25. Buffalo | 2-0 | 154 | - |
Others receiving votes: West Virginia 145, Indiana 131, Nebraska 41, Wisconsin 32, Washington 29, Maryland 28, Notre Dame 24, Miami 16, Ohio St. 14, Alabama 11, Iowa St. 9, Florida 9, Louisville 8, Texas 6, Texas Tech 5, Arizona St 4, Butler 4, Vanderbilt 4, Loyola of Chicago 3, Arizona 2, St. John’s 2, Marshall 2, Xavier 2, Penn 1, Furman 1, Davidson 1, Southern Illinois 1.