Latest poll has SEC champ Kentucky closing in on return to top five

Kentucky’s men’s basketball team is riding an eight-game winning streak that had them continuing to gain ground in the Associated Press Top 25 poll that was released on Monday afternoon. UK moved up two spots to sixth, passing up Florida State (now seventh) and Duke (now 12th) in the process.

Kansas was the unanimous choice for the top spot, receiving all 64 votes from the media panel. Gonzaga was No. 2, with Dayton, Baylor and San Diego State rounding out the top five.

The Cats are 24-5 overall, 14-2 in the Southeastern Conference and coming off a 73-66 victory over Auburn that clinched the program’s 49th regular-season league title with two games left to play.

UK, which also won 69-60 at Texas A&M last week, has matchups against Tennessee at home Tuesday and at Florida on Saturday to go before the SEC Tournament on March 11-15 in Nashville.

ESPN’s Monday morning Bracketology update had Kentucky as a No. 3 seed, which is up a spot from a week ago. Kansas, Baylor, San Diego State and Gonzaga are Joe Lunardi’s No. 1 seeds, followed by Seton Hall, Maryland, Dayton and Florida State as two-seeds.

Joining UK as three-seeds were Duke, Louisville and Villanova while the four-seeds were Penn State, Oregon, Michigan State and Creighton. Louisville (24-6) moved up a spot to 10th in this week’s AP poll.

▪ Dayton, at No. 3, has its highest AP ranking since reaching No. 2 in 1955-56 after stretching its winning streak to 18 games with victories over George Mason and Davidson last week.

▪ No. 8 Seton Hall has its highest AP ranking since reaching No. 7 in 2000-01 after moving up five spots. The Pirates beat Marquette last week.

▪ The USA Today coaches’ poll’s top six mirrored the AP poll with Kansas a unanimous No. 1, then Gonzaga, Dayton, Baylor, San Diego State and Kentucky. The coaches also have Louisville at No. 10.

Women’s poll

Kentucky’s women will head into this week’s SEC Tournament as the nation’s 16th-ranked team. The Cats (21-7) fell one spot after a week with a win against Georgia and a surprising loss at Vanderbilt. UK is the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament and earned a double bye into Friday’s quarterfinals.

South Carolina remained the No. 1 team and was followed by Baylor, Oregon, Louisville and UConn.

Men’s AP top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ men’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through March 1, 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: Butler 68, UCLA 54, Stephen F. Austin 47, ETSU 31, West Virginia 22, Providence 17, Colorado 13, Marquette 12, Arizona 9, Texas Tech 9, N. Iowa 4, Oklahoma 4, Stanford 4, Arizona St 4, Wichita St. 2, Saint Mary’s (Calif.) 2, LSU 2, New Mexico St. 2, Southern Cal 1, Belmont 1, Vermont 1.

Women’s AP top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ women’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Mar. 1, 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: Duke 16, Rutgers 10, Old Dominion 7, Central Michigan 7, TCU 6, Virginia Tech 4, Marquette 4, James Madison 2, Tennessee 2, Texas 2, LSU 2, Florida Gulf Coast 1.

This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 12:20 PM.