Kansas remains at No. 1, while Kentucky and Villanova both moved up a spot after Syracuse lost at home to Louisville on Sunday afternoon.
The Jayhawks went on the road and had no problems with Texas early in the week, while Kentucky got past Tennessee in Lexington.
The most impressive victories of anyone in the top five belong to No. 3 Villanova, which won a road game at West Virginia, and fifth-ranked Purdue, which defeated Michigan State in East Lansing.
Duke moved up one spot to No. 6, while Kansas State slides up two to No. 7.
Syracuse wasn’t the only big-time Big East team to go down this weekend. West Virginia lost on Friday night at Pittsburgh and fell from sixth to eighth overall, and Georgetown was upset at Rutgers and slipped three spots to 11th.
Ohio State has won 10 of its past 12 since Evan Turner returned from a month-long hiatus because of a couple of fractures in his back, and the Buckeyes crack the Top 10 this week at No. 9. Despite a loss at home to Illinois, Wisconsin remained at No. 10.
No one made a huge move up the poll this past week, but the following all climbed a pair of spots: No. 12 Temple, No. 13 New Mexico, No. 16 Gonzaga, No. 17 Pittsburgh, No. 18 Butler, No. 19 Wake Forest, No. 20 Texas A&M, No. 21 Vanderbilt and No. 22 Baylor.
There are just two newcomers to the poll — No. 23 BYU, which returns after a week out of the Top 25, and Richmond.
Chris Mooney’s Spiders make their way into the poll after a pair of road wins at Rhode Island and Saint Bonaventure, which put Richmond in sole possession of first place in the A-10 at 20-6 overall and 9-2 in league play.
The two teams that fell out this week are No. 17 Georgia Tech, which lost a pair of road games at Miami and Wake Forest, and Cornell, which lost its first Ivy League contest of the season on the road against a Penn team that had won just three games all season.
WEEK 14 TOP 25
1. Kansas (24-1) *1
2. Kentucky (24-1) *3
3. Villanova (22-2) *4
4. Syracuse (24-2) *2
5. Purdue (21-3) *5
6. Duke (21-4) *7
7. Kansas State (20-4) *9
8. West Virginia (19-5) *6
9. Ohio State (20-6) *11
10. Wisconsin (19-6) *10
11. Georgetown (18-6) *8
12. Temple (20-5) *14
13. New Mexico (23-3) *15
14. Michigan State (20-6) *12
15. Texas (20-5) *13
16. Gonzaga (21-4) *18
17. Pittsburgh (19-6) *19
18. Butler (23-4) *20
19. Wake Forest (18-5) *21
20. Texas A&M (18-6) * 22
21. Vanderbilt (19-5) *23
22. Baylor (19-5) *24
23. BYU (23-3) *NR
24. Tennessee (18-6) *16
25. Richmond (20-6) *NR
Dropped out: No. 17 Georgia Tech, No. 25 Cornell.
