The Kansas men’s basketball team is back in the role of highest-ranked Big 12 Conference men’s hoops team this week in the Associated Press poll.
After wins over Texas and Oklahoma last week, the Jayhawks jumped up four spots to No. 5 in the latest AP Top 25.
KU is one of six Big 12 teams ranked in the top 22 spots in the poll, with three of those landing in the top nine — Texas is down a spot from last week and ranked No. 6 and Baylor jumped five spots to No. 9.
Kansas State, which split with TCU and Texas Tech last week, stayed put at No. 12 while Iowa State dropped eight spots to No. 19 and TCU dropped five spots to No. 22. Both teams lost both of their games last week.
Oklahoma State, which will play host to Kansas at 8 p.m. Tuesday night in Stillwater, Oklahoma, was new to the poll this week, receiving the sixth most votes of any team that did not crack the Top 25.
Missouri was the top team in the receiving votes category, with 114, while Northwestern picked up 96 points after its upset of previously No. 1-ranked Purdue.
The Boilermakers lost for the second week in a row, but this time the lost cost them the top spot. Purdue dropped to No. 3, behind new No. 1 Alabama and Houston at No. 2. All three teams received first-place votes, with ‘Bama getting 38, Houston 22 and Purdue two.
UCLA and KU rounded out this week’s top five, while Texas, Virginia, Arizona, Baylor and Tennessee made up the rest of the top 10.