Kansas remains No. 1 in AP Top 25 basketball poll; Wisconsin joins rankings

Kansas Jayhawks

Kansas strengthened its grip on No. 1 in the AP Top 25.

The rest of the top 10 turned into a jumble of teams swapping places.

The Jayhawks picked up five first-place votes in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, receiving 49 from a 61-person media panel. No. 2 UConn had seven first-place votes, No. 3 Gonzaga earned two and No. 4 Auburn three. Iowa State climbed two spots to round out the top five.

The shuffling started with No. 8 Alabama’s 87-78 loss to No. 6 Purdue, a game that dropped the Crimson Tide six spots and bumped the Boilermakers up seven. Losses by Duke and Arizona shook up the top 10 further.

The No. 12 Blue Devils dropped six spots after their 77-72 loss to No. 9 Kentucky. The Wildcats climbed 10 spots for their first top-10 ranking this season. Arizona lost 103-88 at No. 19 Wisconsin and fell eight spots to No. 17. The Badgers are ranked for the first time this season.

Kansas backed up its win over North Carolina in the season’s opening week by beating Michigan State and Oakland.

UConn continued to roll in its bid for a third straight national championship, blowing out Le Moyne 90-49. Gonzaga crushed UMass Lowell, Auburn rolled over Kent State and Iowa State beat Kansas City by 26.

No. 7 Houston moved up a spot bouncing back from a 74-69 loss to Auburn by blowing out Louisiana-Lafayette.

Building Badgers

Wisconsin had to reload its roster after an upset loss to James Madison in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season.

Coach Greg Gard filled the holes with some solid additions through the transfer portal, but the Badgers were still picked to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten.

The projections may have been off.

After rolling through three easy wins against smaller conference schools, Wisconsin made a few waves by running over Arizona. John Tonje scored 41 points, two off the school record, and the Badgers never trailed in a convincing win over a top-10 team that led to a passionate post-game speech by Gard.

In and out

No….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kansas-remains-no-1-ap-194022266.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-18 19:40:00

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