Kansas University’s men’s basketball team is back in the top 10.
The Jayhawks (10-2), who were ranked 11th last week, jumped two slots to No. 9 in the Associated Press poll following blowout victories over Winston Salem-State (94-43) and Boston College (84-66).
UCLA held the top spot for the fifth straight week. The Bruins, who beat Sam Houston State, 75-61, and Michigan, 92-55, last week, received all but one first-place vote and finished with 1,799 points from the 72-member national media panel.
North Carolina (10-1) was No. 2 for the second consecutive week, receiving the other first-place vote and 1,720 points.
Florida, the only team beside UCLA to be No. 1 this season, jumped from fifth to third following its 86-60 victory over Ohio State. Wisconsin remained fourth while Duke moved up one place to fifth.
Ohio State, which lost for the first time since freshman center Greg Oden made his debut seven games into the season following offseason wrist surgery, fell three places to sixth. Arizona, Alabama and KU all moved up two places to seventh through ninth.
Pittsburgh, which bounced back from consecutive losses to Wisconsin and Oklahoma State with a 30-point victory over Dayton, fell from seventh to round out the top 10.
Texas A&M was 11th, followed by Connecticut, Oklahoma State, Washington, Butler, Wichita State, LSU, Marquette, Notre Dame and Oregon.
The last five ranked teams were Tennessee, Memphis, Air Force, Nevada and Clemson.
The ESPN/USA Today poll, meanwhile, has a top ten of UCLA, North Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, Duke, Ohio State, Arizona, Alabama, UConn and Kansas.
Wichita State was unbeaten entering last week, but the Shockers (9-2) lost to New Mexico and Southern California on consecutive nights in the Las Vegas Classic and had the week’s biggest drop from eighth to No. 16.
The No. 8 ranking was Wichita State’s highest since being No. 2 on Dec. 29, 1981.
Gonzaga fell out of the poll from No. 22. The Bulldogs (9-4) lost, 61-54, to Duke in their only game last week, but it was their third loss in four games. Gonzaga, which was ranked as high as No. 16 this season, sandwiched a win over Washington with losses at Washington State and Georgia before the loss to Duke at Madison Square Garden.
Syracuse (10-3) fell out from 23rd. The Orange, who were ranked every week since the preseason poll and were as high as No. 16, lost, 84-79, to Drexel on Tuesday. That was their third loss in a five-game stretch, the others to Wichita State, at home, and Oklahoma State, at Madison Square Garden.
Clemson finally entered the poll thanks to its perfect 12-0 mark. The Tigers had been one of the country’s four undefeated teams not to be ranked.
The ranking is the first for Clemson since Jan. 12, 1999. The Tigers returned four starters from the team that won five of eight games to close 2005-06, and all but three of the wins this season – Old Dominion, Furman and Mississippi State – have been by at least 10 points.
“Being ranked among the top 25 teams in the country is certainly a sign of progress in our program,” coach Oliver Purnell, who is in his fourth season at Clemson, said Monday. “It is important to use this as motivation to work even harder to get better. We do not need to relax and view it as a major accomplishment at this time of year.”
