After losing to Missouri in the Big 12 Conference tournament semifinals, the Jayhawks dropped two spots to No. 6 in the final AP Top 25 poll before the NCAA tournament.
While the writers agreed with the NCAA selection committee that KU wasn’t one of the top four teams in the nation, they didn’t see Texas as worthy of a No. 1 seed. Pittsburgh joined No. 1 Kentucky, No. 2 Arizona and No. 3 Oklahoma in the poll’s top four spots. Texas was No. 5, just a spot ahead of KU.
Missouri, which lost to Oklahoma by just two points in the conference finals, re-entered the poll at No. 24. Oklahoma State was the only other Big 12 school to receive votes.
The last four spots in the top 10 are Duke, Wake Forest, Marquette and Florida.
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The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ men’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through March 16, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking:
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| Record | Pts | Pv | |
| 1. Kentucky (70) | 29-3 | 1,774 | 2 |
| 2. Arizona (1) | 25-3 | 1,686 | 1 |
| 3. Oklahoma | 24-6 | 1,589 | 6 |
| 4. Pittsburgh | 26-4 | 1,539 | 5 |
| 5. Texas | 22-6 | 1,498 | 3 |
| 6. Kansas | 25-7 | 1,450 | 4 |
| 7. Duke | 24-6 | 1,224 | 12 |
| 8. Wake Forest | 24-5 | 1,160 | 9 |
| 9. Marquette | 23-5 | 1,147 | 8 |
| 10. Florida | 24-7 | 1,141 | 7 |
| 11. Illinois | 24-6 | 1,102 | 13 |
| 12. Xavier | 25-5 | 1,006 | 10 |
| 13. Syracuse | 24-5 | 968 | 11 |
| 14. Louisville | 24-6 | 826 | 20 |
| 15. Creighton | 29-4 | 605 | 19 |
| 16. Dayton | 24-5 | 584 | 22 |
| 17. Maryland | 19-9 | 580 | 14 |
| 18. Stanford | 23-8 | 539 | 15 |
| 19. Memphis | 23-6 | 468 | 16 |
| 20. Mississippi St. | 21-9 | 372 | — |
| 21. Wisconsin | 22-7 | 369 | 18 |
| 22. Notre Dame | 22-9 | 313 | 17 |
| 23. Connecticut | 21-9 | 225 | — |
| 24. Missouri | 21-10 | 199 | — |
| 25. Georgia | 19-8 | 141 | 21 |
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Others receiving votes: Saint Joseph’s 107, Oklahoma St. 100, Oregon 83, California 64, Weber St. 33, Utah 31, Butler 27, LSU 27, S. Illinois 23, N.C. State 18, Cent. Michigan 12, Kent St. 8, Holy Cross 7, BYU 6, Penn 6, W. Kentucky 6, Troy St. 4, Manhattan 3, Michigan St. 2, N.C.-Wilmington 1, Tulsa 1, Wis.-Milwaukee 1.
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