Kentucky’s back in the AP’s top 10 — and ahead of Louisville — this week

Kentucky returned to the Associated Press’ top 10 this week, moving up four spots to No. 10 and jumping ahead of Louisville in the process.

The Cats, who were No. 14 and one spot behind Louisville last week, are now one spot ahead of the Cardinals by 17 points in the voting. UK defeated Louisville 78-70 in Lexington on Dec. 28.

The Wildcats (12-3, 3-0 SEC) were 2-0 last week with wins at Georgia, 78-69, on Tuesday and against Alabama, 76-67, at home on Saturday.

Kentucky swept the Southeastern Conference’s weekly awards for the second time this season. Sophomore Immanuel Quickley was named the player of the week and Tyrese Maxey was selected as the freshman of the week. Quickley averaged 17.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals while making eight of nine attempts from long range. Maxey added 15.0 points, 5.5 boards, 4.5 assists and 2.0 blocks in the victories.

UK, which is on a four-game winnings streak, has a pair of road contests on tap for this week: South Carolina on Wednesday and Arkansas on Saturday.

Baylor, which won on the road at Texas Tech and Kansas, leapfrogged the Jayhawks and Duke into the second spot in the poll. The Bears finished with 1,567 points in voting by 65 media members who regularly cover the game, just seven back of top-ranked Gonzaga — even though Baylor had 31 first-place votes and the Bulldogs had 30.

“I think to have a special team you first need to have that work ethic, you need to have that character, but most of all you have to have guys that buy into roles and celebrate each other’s success,” Bears Coach Scott Drew explained. “As the year has gone on we’ve done better and better at that. We call it ‘playing with joy.’ If you do that, good things happen.”

Great things, as a matter of fact. Baylor (13-1, 3-0 Big 12) hasn’t lost since playing Washington in Alaska in its second game of the season. Along the way, the boys from Waco, Texas, have notched nonconference wins over ranked teams Villanova, Arizona and Butler along with league wins over the Red Raiders, the Jayhawks and Texas.

The win over Kansas was the first for Baylor in 18 tries at Allen Fieldhouse and the first over a top-five team on the road.

The Blue Devils fell to third in the AP poll, followed by unbeaten Auburn and Butler. The Jayhawks were next with another unbeaten, San Diego State, staying at No. 7. Oregon, Florida State and Kentucky rounded out the top 10.

The biggest climb came from Wichita State, which jumped seven spots to No. 16 after soundly beating No. 22 Memphis and turning back Connecticut in double overtime. The Shockers’ only loss came against No. 12 West Virginia in the championship game of the Cancun Classic in late November.

The biggest drop by a team that remains in the poll came from Ohio State, which lost two more games to Maryland and Indiana to make it four consecutive losses. The Buckeyes were once in the top five but are now No. 21.

“We have to find a way to figure some things out here quickly,” Ohio State Coach Chris Holtmann said. “You know, I think it’s a work in progress right now. I think we definitely have some offensive issues that we have to work out.”

Women’s poll

Kentucky’s women’s team (14-2) also gained a bit of ground, moving up three places to No. 11 after a pair of wins at Alabama and Florida.

Louisville (16-1), which received two first-place votes and moved back into the top five, was up two spots from last week.

South Carolina surged three spots to No. 1 after the top three teams from the previous week all lost. It was a rough week for ranked teams, with 11 of them losing at least one game. The last time the top three teams in the women’s AP Top 25 lost within a span of seven days was during the 2011 NCAA Tournament.

AP men’s top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Jan. 12, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:

Others receiving votes: Iowa 88, Stanford 77, Arkansas 65, Indiana 50, Virginia 41, Penn St. 36, LSU 30, Arizona 20, Wisconsin 19, Liberty 11, N. Iowa 10, Purdue 10, Duquesne 9, Washington 9, Rutgers 8, TCU 8, Virginia Tech 5, Houston 4, Oregon St. 4, BYU 3, ETSU 2, Akron 1, Harvard 1, Saint Mary’s (Cal) 1, Southern Cal 1.

AP women’s top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ women’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Jan. 12, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:

Others receiving votes: Princeton 30, Northwestern 23, Rutgers 15, Georgia Tech 5, Florida Gulf Coast 2.

This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 12:23 PM.