NCAA Basketball Rankings: Duke, Ohio State and Kansas All Hold On To Their Top Spots In AP Poll

Even though the same five teams from last week lead off this week’s AP Top 25 poll, this weekend was anything but easy for them.

No. 1 Duke had to hold off a pesky Maryland team in a game that was decided in single digits, No. 2 Ohio State was pushed to the very end by Minnesota at home and No. 3 Kansas was forced into overtime by an unranked Michigan team in one of the Jayhawks first true road games of the year. But for yet another week we are forced to wait for a big upset to shake up the top of the rankings.

Elsewhere in the poll, however, there was plenty of movement. Former No. 9 Missouri dropped to No.15 after a disappointing loss to Colorado, and Georgetown plummeted all the way to No. 22 after losing two in a row to unranked St. John’s and West Virginia.

The conference play was unkind also to newly unranked Big Ten teams Minnesota and Michigan State. The Gophers have dropped three of four conference games, all to ranked opponents, and have lost all of the hype that once garnered them a top-15 ranking. The Spartans’ loss on the road to Penn State and too close victory over Northwestern earned the former No.2 team the designation of unranked as well.

New teams to this week’s AP poll include newly No. 18 Louisville, No. 24 Georgia -- who jumps in after their huge win over No. 13 Kentucky -- No 19 Temple and No. 20 Wisconsin.

Full AP Top 25 rankings:

Others Receiving Votes: Minnesota(12-4) 123; Michigan State(10-5) 118; Baylor(11-3) 111; Florida(12-3) 110; UNLV(13-3) 74; Vanderbilt(11-3) 74; Oklahoma State(13-2) 71; Memphis(12-3) 49; St. Mary’s(14-2) 49; North Carolina(11-4) 31; Gonzaga(11-5) 29; West Virginia(10-4) 15; Arizona(14-3) 6; Tennessee(10-5) 4; St. John’s(10-4) 4; Old Dominion(12-3) 4; Utah State(14-2) 4; Missouri State(13-3) 2; Virginia Tech(10-4) 2; Wichita State(13-3) 2; Coastal Carolina(14-2) 1; Richmond(13-4) 1