Kansas remained No. 8 in the Associated Press college basketball poll and Iowa State moved up to No. 10. Big 12 teams Oklahoma (16), Baylor (19) and West Virginia (20) also are ranked. Oklahoma State lost twice and dropped out.
The top 25 teams in the AP poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 22, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:
Record Pts Prv
1. Kentucky (65) 27-0 1,625 1
2. Virginia 25-1 1,526 2
3. Gonzaga 28-1 1,471 3
4. Duke 24-3 1,448 4
5. Wisconsin 25-2 1,390 5
6. Villanova 25-2 1,306 6
7. Arizona 24-3 1,228 7
8. Kansas 22-5 1,111 8
9. Notre Dame 24-4 1,109 10
10. N. Iowa 26-2 1,032 11
11. Wichita St. 25-3 930 13
12. Iowa St. 20-6 887 14
13. Utah 21-5 876 9
14. Maryland 22-5 695 16
15. North Carolina 19-8 655 15
16. Oklahoma 19-8 622 17
17. Louisville 21-6 613 12
18. Arkansas 22-5 564 18
19. Baylor 20-7 473 20
20. West Virginia 21-6 453 23
21. SMU 22-5 357 21
22. VCU 21-6 182 25
23. Butler 19-8 165 19
24. San Diego St. 22-6 117 _
25. Providence 19-8 72 _
**Others receiving votes:** Georgetown 58, Michigan St. 56, Murray St. 42, Oklahoma St. 25, Ohio St. 12, Valparaiso 10, Texas A&M 8, Rhode Island 3, Stephen F. Austin 2, Oregon 1, Texas 1.
**My top 25 AP ballot:**
**1 – Kentucky:** Three future NBA centers Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson combine for 63.3 minutes per game, 26 points, 18.3 rebounds, 4.8 blocks and .564 shooting. Many NBA teams don’t have a single NBA centers, present or future.
**2 – Virginia:** Held Florida State without a field goal in the final 10-and-a-half minutes of game clock in 51-41 victory. Unbelievable defensive team.
**3 – Gonzaga:** Nobody ever will mistake him for the guy known by the first four letters of Kyle Wiltjer’s last name, but by one kenpom.com measure, Wiltjer is the highest-rated offensive player in the nation. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound Kentucky transfer leads Zags with 17.4 points per game and shoots .543 from the field, .469 from three and .806 from line.
**4 – Duke:** The bigger the game, the better freshman point guard T’yus Jones plays. In leading Duke from a 10-point deficit with inside four minutes left to an overtime victory, Jones totaled 22 points, seven rebounds and eight assists.
**5 – Wisconsin:** Say what you will about the Big Ten having a down year, but going in 13-1 in league games, with the one coming when two starters were sidelined, is nothing short of amazing.
**6 – Villanova:** Providence and Butler only teams to come within single digits of Wildcats during active eight-game winning streak.
**7 – Arizona:** Three top scorers, Stanley Johnson, Brandon Ashley and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, combined to shoot 4 of 25 vs. UCLA and still Arizona won, 57-47. Another oddity from that game: First four minutes of game and first four of second half, UCLA outscored Arizona, 20-0.
**8 – Kansas:** Defensive rebounding has become such a concern it might be time to leave Cliff Alexander on the floor, except when the opponent is applying defensive pressure, and live with his spacy moments.
**9 – Notre Dame:** Irish don’t have a shot-blocker and 6-foot-10, 242-pound junior Zach Auguste is the only player in the starting lineup taller than 6-5. Team compensates by taking smart shots and spreading the floor with .404 three-point shooting. Four of top six in minutes played shoot .406 or better from three.
**10 – Iowa State:** Fred Hoiberg has breathed so much life into the Cyclones program, yet until this past weekend his teams had not won two consecutive Big 12 road games. No better indication exists of the difficulty of winning away from home in Big 12 than that. And it’s not as if the Cyclones faced a couple of stiffs in Oklahoma State and Texas.
**11 – Utah:** The Utes’ ability to score inside has opened up three-pointers to the extent they were shooting almost 40 percent from three. That sometimes can lead to a team settling for threes. That happened in Sunday’s 11-point loss at Oregon, where Utes attempted more threes (29) than twos (23).
**12 – Louisville:** In a week that featured a loss at Syracuse and victory vs. Miami, guard Terry Rozier hoisted 33 shots and made just nine, which by Cardinals standards isn’t as bad as it sounds.
**13 – North Carolina:** Here comes J.P. Tokoto, athletic 6-5 junior forward who does a little bit of everything. In overtime loss at Duke and one-sided victory vs. Georgia Tech, Tokoto averaged 13.5 points, seven rebounds, six assists.
**14 – Maryland:** Chance to improve NCAA Tournament seed comes Tuesday, when Terps play host to Wisconsin.
**15 – Northern Iowa:** Huge week for the Panthers. They have chance to avenge lone Missouri Valley Conference loss Wednesday when Evansville visits. If that goes well, they can win conference outright Saturday in Wichita.
**16 – Oklahoma:** Tell me again how this team was swept by Kansas State?
**17 – Wichita State:** Carrying a short list with five names on it is stuffed in every athletic director’s wallet, in the event he or she must hire a basketball coach in the offseason. Gregg Marshall’s name has to be on just about every list, every year and he stays with the Shockers because he loves his job, his players, his adopted city. How cool is that?
**18 – Arkansas:** Mike Anderson making mentor Nolan Richardson proud. Key to Hogs’ success: Hurry opponents into mistakes (16.5 turnovers) and don’t make many of your own (11.8).
**19 – Michigan State:** A victory Thursday would give Spartans a season-high, five-game winning streak.
**20- West Virginia:** Kenpom.com stats: A national-best 16.4 percent of opponents’ possessions end in a steal and Mountaineers rank sixth in nation in offensive rebounding percentage.
**21 – Baylor:** Scott Drew’s team deserves credit for playing hard and showing toughness. How else could the Bears rank No. 1 in the nation with an offensive-rebound percentage of 42.1?
**22 – Georgetown:** Teams with a really good guard (D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera) and a really hard-to-guard center (Joshua Smith) and a good defense (18th in nation in defensive efficiency, per kenpom.com). Think the Kansas team led by Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson.
**23 – SMU:** Larry Brown’s leading scorer is 5-9, 170-pound Nic Moore from Lake Winona, Ind. He has made 10 of 20 threes in the past four games and is shooting .429 from long range and averaging 14.5 points.
**24 – Virginia Commonwealth:** Rams are young, lack size and don’t get to the free-throw line very often. They compensate by forcing turnovers and not committing them.
**25 – San Diego State:** Aztecs steadily improving. They’re riding four-game winning streak with an average margin of victory of 17.5 points.
