Duke, Stanford and Saint Joseph’s started a second straight week as the top three teams in the Associated Press men’s college basketball poll Monday, while Gonzaga returned to the top 10 for the first time in almost two years.
Kansas University dropped three spots to No. 15.
The Blue Devils (16-1), who won road games against Maryland and Georgetown last week, were again the runaway No. 1, receiving 44 first-place votes and 1,766 points from the national media panel.
Stanford (16-0) and Saint Joseph’s (17-0), the last unbeatens in Division One, were the only other teams to get first-place votes.
The Cardinal, who beat UCLA and Southern California last week, were No. 1 on 26 ballots and had 1,743 points, 103 more than Saint Joseph’s, which got two first-place votes. The Hawks beat Massachusetts and St. Bonaventure last week.
Louisville, which extended its winning streak to 15 games Sunday at Tennessee, moved up one place to fourth. Kentucky, which beat Tennessee and Notre Dame last week, jumped from ninth to No. 5.
Connecticut, which held the No. 1 spot for five weeks before Duke took over, fell two spots to a season-low sixth following Saturday’s loss to Providence, the Huskies’ second in three games.
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Arizona and Gonzaga rounded out the top 10. This was the first top 10 ranking for Gonzaga (15-2) since the Bulldogs were sixth in the final poll of 2001-02.
Mississippi State (16-1) used wins over Florida and Georgia last week to jump from 19th to No. 11. The Bulldogs’ only loss was at the buzzer to Kentucky.
North Carolina, which lost to Florida State and beat Virginia last week, dropped from seventh to No. 12.
Providence (13-3) was the week’s only newcomer. The Friars moved into the rankings three weeks ago, only to lose to Texas that night. They lost at Rutgers later that week and fell from the poll.
Providence has won five straight games since, the latest a 66-56 victory Saturday at Connecticut. This is the Friars’ highest ranking since they were 20th Jan. 24, 1989.
Vanderbilt (13-3) fell out from 22nd, ending a five-week run in the poll in which the Commodores reached No. 20. Saturday at Arkansas, Vanderbilt lost its third straight conference road game.
Wake Forest (11-4) extended its losing streak to four games with losses to Georgia Tech and Florida State last week. The Demon Deacons dropped from fourth to 10th to 19th during the streak.
Oklahoma (11-4), which ended its four-game losing streak Saturday with a win over Kansas State, fell from No. 6 to 11th to 20th to 25th during its losing streak.
