Kansas, Texas still 1-2 in AP poll
December 14, 2009
Kansas was the runaway No. 1 pick in The Associated Press’ collegebasketball poll Monday, just as it has been each week since the season beganlast month.
Kansas State and New Mexico entered the rankings this week. The Wildcatsjoined the poll for the first time since the 2007-08 season, a drought dwarfedby the Lobos, whose previous appearance in the Top 25 was in March 1999.
The Jayhawks (9-0), who easily beat Radford and La Salle last week, received61 first-place votes from the national media panel and were well ahead of Texas(8-0), which received one first-place vote and was No. 2 for the third straightweek.
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Kentucky (10-0), which was No. 1 on one ballot, and Purdue (9-0) both movedup one spot to third and fourth, following Villanova’s 75-65 loss to Temple onSunday. The Wildcats (9-1) dropped to eighth.
Syracuse (10-0), which beat Florida last week for its third win over aranked team this season, received the other two first-place votes and jumpedfrom seventh to fifth.
West Virginia remained sixth and was followed by Duke, Villanova, Tennesseeand North Carolina.
Georgetown, which beat Top 25 teams Butler and Washington last week, movedup four places to 11th, followed by Michigan State, Florida, Connecticut,Gonzaga, Texas Tech, Kansas State, Ohio State, New Mexico and Mississippi.
The bottom five ranked teams were Butler, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M,Washington and Cincinnati.
Kansas State (9-1) moved in at 17th following a 95-80 victory over UNLV onSaturday, its sixth straight win since an 86-74 loss to Mississippi in thesemifinals of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Wildcats were ranked for eight weeksin 2007-08, Michael Beasley’s only season in Manhattan before leaving for theNBA.
New Mexico (10-0) kept its unbeaten season going with an 84-81 victory overTexas A&M in Houston on Saturday. The Lobos have shown steady improvement underthird-year coach Steve Alford, who led them to the Mountain West Conferenceregular-season title last season.
This is their first appearance in the Top 25 since a three-season run undercoach Dave Bliss that ended with the final poll of 1998-99.
UNLV (7-1) was ranked for two weeks before falling out from 18th after theloss to Kansas State.
Wisconsin (7-2) moved into the poll last week after handing Duke its firstloss of the season in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. But the Badgers were gone thisweek after following the victory over the Blue Devils with an 88-84 overtimeloss to Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Texas Tech, which beat Texas Christian 80-70 in its only game last week, hadthe biggest jump, moving from 23rd to 16th.
Texas A&M, which beat North Texas 75-65 before losing to New Mexico, andWashington, which lost 74-66 to Georgetown in the Wooden Classic, both fellseven places, to 23rd and 24th, respectively.
The only games between ranked teams this week are Saturday at neutral sites:Gonzaga plays Duke at Madison Square Garden, and North Carolina faces Texas atCowboys Stadium.