New AP Poll Following Unprecedented Weekend of College Hoops
On the last weekend on February, we saw March levels of Madness. SEVEN!!!! top ten basketball teams lost in a single day. EIGHT!!!! top ten teams lost this week in total. Both are records in the history of the AP Poll.
With unprecedented madness, the AP poll voters and NCAA selection committee are faced with the difficult task of figuring out to re-rank the entire top of the nation. Does everyone who lost drop? Does nothing change at all and we ignore everything that happened this past week? Can you justify only dropping certain teams who lost while keeping others at their previous rankings? The selection committee has 13 days, 2 regular season games, and the conference tournaments to answer these questions. But for the AP Poll voters... they are not as lucky.
Following a home win over LSU without their starting guards Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington, and a two point road loss to red-hot Arkansas, Kentucky moves down a single spot to #7. Previously at #6, Kentucky gets passed by Baylor (now #3) and Duke (now #4), the only two top ten teams not to lose this past week. However, Kentucky jumps ahead of Purdue who lost to unranked Michigan State this past week.
With only one week of regular season college basketball remaining, the Cats last opportunities to move up in the poll will likely be from the SEC tournament, as this week's matchups of Ole Miss and Florida are very unlikely to move the needle.
The full AP Poll is as follows:
Gonzaga
Arizona
Baylor
Duke
Auburn
Kansas
Kentucky
Purdue
Providence
Wisconsin
Villanova
Texas Tech
Tennessee
Arkansas and Houston
N/A
USC
UCLA
UConn
Saint Mary's
Illinois
Texas
Murray State
Ohio State
Iowa
Alabama