Where did Kentucky end up in the AP Top 25 after two wins last week?
After a week of solid if not spectacular wins against lesser opponents, Kentucky stood pat at No. 10 in the Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll released Monday, as Michigan leapfrogged the Cats into the top 10.
The No. 9 Wolverines, with former Kentucky standout Charles Matthews in the fold, not only supplanted then-No. 8 Villanova in the top 10 with their 73-46 drubbing of the Philadelphia Wildcats, they helped knock the defending national champions completely out of the poll. Nova also lost to unranked Furman, 76-68 in overtime, last week.
UK throttled North Dakota last Wednesday 96-58 and saw sophomore forward PJ Washington snap out of a small funk with 25 points. Sunday, the Cats looked shaky on defense against VMI in a 92-82 win. Washington had 19 points, while senior Travis Reid and sophomore Quade Green also had a big night with 22 and 17 points, respectively.
The top seven teams in the poll remained unchanged with Duke and Kansas holding down Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. Auburn ticked up one spot to No. 8. That likely won’t hold next week with Duke, Gonzaga and Auburn all involved in this week’s Maui Invitational.
Marquette joined Villanova and Syracuse in dropping from the poll after the Golden Eagles (3-1) were routed by Indiana. Oregon (3-1) dropped from No. 13 to No. 21 after splitting its games against Iowa and Syracuse in New York. Syracuse dropped from No. 15 out of the poll after losing to Connecticut and Oregon in the 2k Classic.
Iowa (4-0) jumped into the poll at No. 20 after beating Oregon and blowing out UConn to win the 2K Classic. It’s the first time the Hawkeyes have been ranked since the final poll of the 2015-16 season.
The other newcomers this week were also from the Big Ten: Ohio State (4-0) entered at No. 23 after beating Creighton and South Carolina State, and Wisconsin squeaked in ahead of another Big Ten rival in Nebraska at No. 25 after the Badgers (3-0) took care of Xavier and Houston Baptist.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Top Twenty Five
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ men’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Nov. 18, 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 (53) | 3-0 | 1,564 | 1 |
2. Kansas (7) | 3-0 | 1,510 | 2 |
3. Gonzaga | 3-0 | 1,437 | 3 |
4. Virginia (2) | 3-0 | 1,299 | 4 |
5. Tennessee (1) | 3-0 | 1,281 | 5 |
6. Nevada | 3-0 | 1,253 | 6 |
7. North Carolina | 4-0 | 1,246 | 7 |
8. Auburn | 3-0 | 1,123 | 9 |
9. Michigan | 5-0 | 1,021 | 18 |
10. Kentucky | 3-1 | 980 | 10 |
11. Michigan St. | 3-1 | 937 | 11 |
12. Kansas St | 4-0 | 889 | 12 |
13. Virginia Tech | 4-0 | 849 | 16 |
14. Florida St. | 2-0 | 794 | 14 |
15. Mississippi St. | 3-0 | 619 | 17 |
16. Clemson | 3-0 | 462 | 19 |
17. UCLA | 3-0 | 430 | 20 |
18. TCU | 3-0 | 388 | 21 |
19. LSU | 4-0 | 358 | 22 |
20. Iowa | 4-0 | 354 | - |
21. Oregon | 3-1 | 325 | 13 |
22. Buffalo | 3-0 | 240 | 25 |
23. Ohio St. | 4-0 | 222 | - |
24. Purdue | 4-1 | 199 | 23 |
25. Wisconsin | 3-0 | 150 | - |
Others receiving votes: Nebraska 98, Indiana 74, Maryland 56, Villanova 53, Furman 50, Syracuse 29, Washington 29, Texas 23, West Virginia 18, Miami 18, Butler 18, St. John’s 13, Iowa St. 11, Texas Tech 8, Florida 7, Marquette 7, Saint Louis 6, Arizona St 4, Vanderbilt 4, Notre Dame 4, Marshall 4, UConn 3, Loyola of Chicago 2, Temple 2, Loyola Marymount 2, Davidson 1, Arkansas 1.