NCAA: Duke back to No. 1 – Kansas at the door

Is it March yet?

The Duke Blue Devils regained the honor of being ranked as the No. 1 NCAA basketball team in the US this week after a brief (one week) time at the No. 3 spot. Duke jumped back in the top spot after last week’s No. 1 squad, Louisville, fell to No. 7 Syracuse and No. 2 Indiana dropped a Big Ten contest to unranked Wisconsin.

The votes are close, there is no clear-cut favorite at this point in the season and with the strength of so many teams and conferences, the shake-up seen in this week’s poll will not be unique as the next seven weeks leading into March Madness play out. Vote totals between the top four teams are separated by a mere 92 total votes on the AP Poll, with four teams earning No. 1 votes, Duke 39, Michigan 11, Kansas 7, and Syracuse 8.

For the first time this season, not one team held their previous weeks position in the poll.

NCAA Top 10 (AP):

No. 1 – Duke: The Blue Devils moved from No. 3 last week on both the AP Poll and USA Today Coaches’ Poll, earning 39 first place votes from the AP voters and 20 from the coaches. Duke only played one game this week, a 73:57 win over Georgia Tech at home to move their season record to 16-1 overall, 3-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Duke plays No. 25 Miami (13-3) and Maryland (14-4) this coming week.

No. 2 – Michigan: The Wolverines got a huge Big Ten road win over No. 9 Minnesota, 75:83, to bounce back from their tough road loss last week to No. 11 Ohio State, 53:56. The Big Ten has a number of serious contenders for not only the Big Ten crown, but also to make a run for the Final Four and Michigan is going to be right there. They picked up 11 first place votes with the AP writers and 1 with the Coaches, and are only 39 votes behind Duke for the No. 1 spot. Michigan squares off against Purdue (10-8) and Illinois (14-5) this week.

No. 3 (tie) – Kansas: Kansas has made a steady climb into the Top 5 after coming into the season in the No. 7 spot. They took a hit in week 3 following a lost to Michigan State, but have either stayed where they were previously, or gained a spot or two every week since, landing in the No. 3 spot in a tie with Syracuse. The Jayhawks had a two-win week, downing Baylor 61:44 at home and picking up a road win over Texas 59:64, extending Kansas’ win streak to 15 games. They currently are tied with Kansas State at 4-0 on top of the Big 12 standings. AP voters gave Kansas seven first place votes and the Coaches gave them eight. The Jayhawks occupy the No. 2 spot on the Coaches’ Poll this week, 20 votes ahead of Michigan.

No. 3 (tie) – Syracuse: The Orangemen have earned back the six places that they lost when Temple beat them four weeks ago. Peaking at No. 3 behind Duke and Michigan in week 7, then falling to No. 9 on the heels of the Temple loss, Syracuse has moved to within 92 votes of being the No. 1 ranked team in college basketball after upsetting No. 1 Louisville in Louisville, 68:70. They beat Cincinnati on Monday in a game that wouldn’t be included in this weeks polling votes, so they are now 17-1 and 5-0 in the Big East. They next travel to Villanova on Saturday.

No. 5 – Louisville: The Cardinals take a big hit with their two-point loss to No. 6 Syracuse, but they are playing solid hoops and will claw their way back up. They also beat UConn last week 58:73 in a Big East matchup on the road. This week Louisville travels to Villanova and Georgetown.

No. 6 – Arizona: The Wildcats picked up their 16th win on the season with a 54:71 road win over Arizona State. They moved up one spot in the poll as Indiana tumbled following their loss to Wisconsin. This week Arizona hosts both UCLA and USC.

No. 7 – Indiana: Just when it looked like the Hoosiers were going to regain their No. 1 spot, they run into the unranked Badgers of Wisconsin. Not only did they lose 59:64, they lost at home. The Big Ten Conference is pretty well stacked and on any given day, it’s tough to predict what’ll happen. At 4-1 in the Big Ten, they are tied with Michigan and Wisconsin, and half a game behind Michigan State (5-1). This week Indiana squares off against Penn State and Michigan State.

No. 8 – Florida: The Gators picked up to big SEC wins last week with a road victory over Texas A&M, 47:68, and a home win over No. 17 Missouri, 83:52. The wins improve their conference mark to 4-0 and a tie for the top spot with Mississippi. They travel to Georgia and Mississippi State this coming week.

No. 9 – Butler: The Bulldogs got a four position bump with a big 64:63 win over No. 8 Gonzaga last week (the lost dropped the Zags to No. 10). Butler also dropped Richmond in an A-10 matchup, to keep their conference record unblemished. This week they face LaSalle on the road and will host Temple next Saturday.

No. 10 – Gonzaga: Gonzaga dropped to 17-2 with the loss to Butler and a 49:71 rout over Portland on the road. The Bulldogs have home contests with Brigham Young an San Francisco this week.

Notable big upward moves: Kansas State jumped five spots to No. 11 on wins over TCU and Oklahoma; Michigan State used wins over Penn St. and Ohio State to move five spots to No. 13; New Mexico’s in over Boise St earned them a four position bump to No. 15; Oregon beat the Southern California duo of USC and UCLA and moved from No. 21 to No. 16; Wichita State broke into the Top 25 with wins over Illinois State and Creighton; Cincinnati also moved in to the Top 25 with a road win over DePaul and a victory over Marquette at home.

Notable big downward moves: Creighton’s loss to Wichita St. cost them five spots, from No. 12 to No. 17; Missouri dropped five from No. 17 to No. 22; San Diego State, Illinois, UCLA and Marquette all dropped out of the Top 25.

The Associated Press NCAA Top 25 Poll

Rank	Team	Record	Votes	Previous	+/-
1	Duke (39)	16-1	1578	3	+2
2	Michigan (11)	17-1	1539	5	+3
3	Kansas (7)	16-1	1486	4	+1
3	Syracuse (8)	17-1	1486	6	+3
5	Louisville	16-2	1348	1	-4
6	Arizona	16-1	1270	7	+1
7	Indiana	16-2	1211	2	-5
8	Florida	14-2	1181	10	+2
9	Butler	16-2	1146	13	+4
10	Gonzaga	17-2	994	8	-2
11	Kansas State	15-2	927	16	+5
12	Minnesota	15-3	905	9	-3
13	Michigan State	16-3	831	18	+5
14	Ohio State	13-4	701	11	-3
15	New Mexico	16-2	659	19	+4
16	Oregon	16-2	624	21	+5
17	Creighton	17-2	611	12	-5
18	North Carolina State	15-3	587	14	-4
19	Virginia Commonwealth	16-3	433	22	+3
20	Wichita State	17-2	363	34	+14
21	Cincinnati	16-3	322	26	+5
22	Missouri	13-4	234	17	-5
23	Mississippi	15-2	172	29	+6
24	Notre Dame	15-3	123	20	-4
25	Miami (FL)	13-3	93	32	+7
Others Receiving Votes: Marquette 92, Wisconsin 55, UCLA 41, UNLV 32, Wyoming 28, San Diego State 26, Colorado State 7, Memphis 6, Georgetown 4, Iowa State 3, North Carolina 3, Louisiana Tech 2, Bucknell 1, Pittsburgh 1

Division I Coaches’ NCAA Top 25 Poll

Comparison Poll