College basketball rankings: Illinois drops seven spots in AP Top 25 after beating Duke and losing to Mizzou

Less than a week after dumping Duke on the road, the Illini paid the price in the polls for a road loss to Mizzou

By Kyle Boone

Dec 14, 2020 at 12:27 pm ET • 2 min read

USATSI

After a decisive road win over Duke last week, Illinois on Monday dropped to No. 13 from last week's ranking of No. 6 in the AP Top 25 college basketball poll. The freefall comes after what was a topsy-turvy week for the Illini who, after beating Duke last Tuesday, fell flat on the road to rival Missouri on Saturday. The 81-78 loss to Mizzou stunted serious momentum it had to potentially move into the top five of the poll.

Brad Underwood's club wasn't the only top 25 team to take a loss over the last week, though, and there was plenty of movement throughout the latest poll as a result. A total of seven ranked teams from last week took losses, including top-10 Creighton and Duke. The Bluejays dropped one spot to No. 9, but the Blue Devils fell from No. 10 to No. 21. It's the lowest AP ranking for Duke since the 2016-17 season, when it ranked 21st in Week 14 of the season.

As for the top of the poll, the top five remained unchanged. Gonzaga held steady at No. 1 with 54 first-place votes, Baylor stayed at No. 2 with seven first-place votes, and Iowa remained in the third spot, garnering one first-place vote this week. Michigan State and Kansas round out this week's top five.

Virginia Tech, Richmond and Arizona State all dropped out of this week's rankings after taking losses over the last week. Clemson and Michigan snuck into the back half of this week's rankings at Nos. 24 and 25, respectively, while undefeated Missouri jumped from outside the top 25 all the way up to No. 16. It's the first time Missouri has been ranked in the AP Top 25 poll since the 2013-14 season and the highest ranking for the program since 2012-13.

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AP Top 25

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

Rank	Team	Record	Points	Previous
1	Gonzaga (54)	3-0	1,541	1
2	Baylor (7)	4-0	1,491	2
3	Iowa (1)	6-0	1,427	3
4	Michigan State	6-0	1,491	4
5	Kansas	6-1	1,289	5
6	Houston	4-0	1,169	7
7	Villanova	5-1	1,163	9
8	West Virginia	6-1	1,113	11
9	Creighton	4-1	1,037	8
10	Tennessee	2-0	941	12
11	Texas	5-1	873	T-13
12	Wisconsin	4-1	846	T-13
13	Illinois	4-2	742	6
14	Texas Tech	6-1	669	17
15	Florida State	3-0	619	20
16	Missouri	5-0	491	NR
17	Virginia	3-1	456	18
18	San Diego State	5-0	455	24
19	Rutgers	4-0	396	21
20	Ohio State	5-0	392	22
21	Duke	2-2	345	10
22	North Carolina	4-2	328	16
23	Louisville	4-0	164	25
24	Clemson	5-0	156	NR
25	Michigan	6-0	142	NR