AP Top 25 college basketball rankings: Villanova new No. 1, Duke makes leap

Duke and Arizona make notable jumps in this week's AP poll

By Kyle Boone

Mar 13, 2017 at 2:12 pm ET • 1 min read

A lot has happened since the final regular-season AP Poll came out just a week ago. And the biggest action took place at the top of the poll with six top-10 teams taking losses in their conference tournaments. It shifted not only the rankings this week, but also the NCAA Tournament seedings that came out Sunday.

No. 1 Kansas beat TCU by 19 points just two weeks ago. But the Jayhawks gave up 85 points in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament to the Horned Frogs, sending them packing early with a loss in their first game. It didn’t affect the polls significantly, dropping KU only two spots. And hey, extra rest rolling into the Big Dance isn’t a terrible thing. But we have a new No. 1 this week after Villanova cake-walked through the Big East tournament -- earning the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and top spot in the AP poll in the process.

The biggest mover of the week was Duke, which jumped from 14 to No. 7 after winning four games in four days to win the ACC tournament. The Blue Devils earned a No. 2 seed in the Big Dance in the same region as No. 1 seed Villanova. Discussion that Duke might be bumped to a No. 1 seed was well-warranted, and it’s clear voters felt strongly about where Duke is now by moving them up higher than Oregon, UCLA and Louisville -- and just one spot below North Carolina, which earned a No. 1 seed on Sunday.

AP Top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Mar. 12, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:

	Record	Points	Previous
1. Villanova (59)	31-3	1619	2
2. Gonzaga (6)	32-1	1520	4
3. Kansas	28-4	1479	1
4. Arizona	30-4	1427	7
5. Kentucky	29-5	1276	8
6. North Carolina	27-7	1256	6
7. Duke	27-8	1251	14
8. UCLA	29-4	1208	3
9. Oregon	29-5	1196	5
10. Louisville	24-8	983	10
11. SMU	30-4	953	12
12. Baylor	25-7	861	9
13. West Virginia	26-8	844	11
14. Notre Dame	25-9	684	22
15, Purdue	25-7	654	13
16. Florida State	25-8	570	16
17. Iowa State	23-10	562	23
18. Cincinnati	29-5	522	15
19. Wichita State	30-4	438	20
20. Florida	24-8	390	17
21. Butler	23-8	361	18
22. Saint Mary’s	28-4	305	19
23. Michigan	24-11	254	-
24. Virginia	22-10	240	21
25. Wisconsin	25-9	153	24