Unlike the AP and coaches’ polls, we had Kansas at No. 1 a week ago.
Therefore, we’ll keep the Jayhawks in the top spot, while Syracuse now drops a spot to No. 3 following the loss at Louisville.
That means Kentucky moves up to No. 2, but the bottom line is all three have basically locked up No. 1 seeds.
Duke remains at No. 4 despite a loss in College Park against Maryland early in the week, but there was some movement among the next four teams.
West Virginia jumped three spots to No. 5 after a home win against Georgetown and a road victory over No. 7 Villanova. Bob Huggins’ team has beaten a handful of Top 25 teams this season and finished the regular-season by winning five of its past six games.
Ohio State and Villanova remained at sixth and seventh, while Kansas State, which lost a pair — at Kansas and at home to Iowa State — this past week, slid from fifth to eighth.
The Buckeyes are difficult to decipher because they were 3-3 when the National Player of the Year front-runner Evan Turner was out of the lineup. However, that means Ohio State was 21-4 with Turner in the lineup.
That’s worthy of their ranking.
Purdue, which won a pair of ho-hum games this past week against Indiana and at Penn State without Robbie Hummel, remains at No. 9, and Temple stays at No. 10.
In fact, there was no movement from ninth to 14th — with New Mexico, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt following Temple.
Tennessee made a move up two spots to No. 15 after a pair of wins, and No. 19 Baylor and No. 20 Texas A&M also climbed a pair of spots.
However, it was a Maryland team that beat Duke and also won at Virginia that was the biggest mover of the week, going from No. 25 to No. 21.
This was the first week of the season that not a single team left the Top 25 poll, which also means no one entered it this week.
WEEK 17 TOP 25
1. Kansas (29-2) *1
2. Kentucky (29-2) *3
3. Syracuse (28-3) *2
4. Duke (26-5) *4
5. West Virginia (24-6) *8
6. Ohio State (24-7) *6
7. Villanova (24-6) *7
8. Kansas State (24-6) *5
9. Purdue (26-4) *9
10. Temple (26-5) *10
11. New Mexico (28-3) *11
12. Wisconsin (23-7) *12
13. Pittsburgh (24-7) *13
14. Vanderbilt (23-7) *14
15. Tennessee (23-7) *17
16. Michigan State (24-7) *15
17. Butler (27-4) *16
18. Georgetown (20-9) *18
19. Baylor (24-6) *21
20. Texas A&M (22-8) * 22
21. Maryland (23-7) *25
22. Texas (23-8) *19
23. BYU (28-4) *20
24. Gonzaga (24-5) *23
25. Xavier (23-7) *24
Dropped out: None.
