This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for Kansas, a team that lost its all-star backcourt of Adonis Jordan and Rex Walters, not to mention Eric Pauley and Darrin Hancock.
Somebody forgot to tell the Jayhawks, who this week jumped two spots to take over the No. 1-slot in the AP basketball poll. KU and UCLA shared the top slot in the USA Today-CNN poll, in which KU was fourth last week.
Kansas (16-1) received 29 first-place votes and 1,552 points from AP’s national media panel to edge UCLA (11-0), first on 26 ballots, with 1,514 points.
“I never go down the schedule and try to see where we should be at a certain time of year, but if you asked me in October or November if I’d take 16-1, I’d have taken it in a heartbeat,” said KU coach Roy Williams.
“The kids have done a heck of a job. Hopefully they’ll keep surprising me and at the end of the year I can say the expectations were unrealistic in my mind, but not in the kids’ minds. They are the most important,” he added.
The nation’s No. 1-ranked basketball team isn’t without flaws.
“We’re like one of those big-wheel trucks. We get there, but pretty it ain’t,” quipped Wililams, whose Jayhawks average 7.7 board more than the opposition and have held foes to aneimic 38.2 percent marksmanship.
Kansas was third last week and the opportunity to move up came when North Carolina and Duke, last week’s Nos. 1 and 2, lost on consecutive days. The Jayhawks moved into the No. 1 of the AP poll last season Jan. 18 and held the spot for two weeks. Their first game as the top-ranked team last season was against Kansas State, tonight’s opponent.
Arkansas (12-1) jumped one spot to third and was followed by North Carolina (13-2), which had one No. 1 vote, and Duke (11-1).
U-Mass (13-1) moved from seventh to sixth and was followed in the Top 10 by Kentucky, Indiana, Arizona and Connecticut.
Temple led the Second 10, followed by Purdue, Louisville, Wisconsin, Michigan, Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Alabama-Birmingham, Cincinnati and Minnesota.
