There is a new No. 1 in college basketball this week after Kansas dropped a road tilt to Arizona State this past weekend.
KU, which was the top-ranked team in the nation the last two weeks, fell all the way to No. 5 in the AP poll after its first loss of the season. Duke replaced the Jayhawks as the top team in the country. Michigan (No. 2), Tennessee (No. 3) and Virginia (No. 4) are all ahead of Kansas, as well.
It was expected that Kansas would fall from No. 1 after dropping its first true road test, though the fall to No. 5 seemed a bit excessive. After all, the Jayhawks (10-1) led for over 37 minutes and appeared in control for much of their loss to now-No. 17 Arizona State.
With that being said, let’s get into the biggest takeaways from this week’s ballot:
Largest fall from No. 1
KU’s drop from the top-ranked team to No. 5 is the largest fall by a No. 1 team in the ensuing poll this season.
Only 15 voters listed Kansas in the top three in their respective ballot, meaning nearly 77 percent of the voters dropped KU from the top three completely following its first loss of the season.
To put that in comparison, Duke fell to No. 3 in the Week 4 ballot after losing to Gonzaga on a neutral site. In that instance, 14 of the 65 AP voters listed the Blue Devils at No. 4 or No. 5. Gonzaga then dropped to No. 4 in the Week 6 poll following a loss to Tennessee.
KU receives four first-place votes
Five teams earned a first-place vote in the latest ballot, including four to Kansas following a narrow defeat at ASU. The four first-place votes matched the total given to Virginia, which was ranked one spot ahead of KU.
Seth Davis, of The Athletic, Scott Richey, of The News-Gazette, and Kevin McNamara, of The Providence Journal, all kept the Jayhawks at No. 1 after listing them there last week.
Interestingly enough, though, Graham Couch, of the Lansing State Journal, voted KU at No. 1 this week. Prior to this week, Couch had left the Jayhawks unranked due to the fact that they hadn’t played a true road game at that point.
I’ve mentioned enough about how absurd this ballot method is in the three weeks this blog has been running, but Couch’s latest poll might be the most ridiculous example of that.
Sooners crack AP poll
Oklahoma made its season debut in the AP Top 25 Poll.
The Sooners (11-1) are ranked No. 25 following wins over Creighton and Northwestern last week. Oklahoma, which was picked to finish eighth in the Big 12 preseason poll, claimed a 76-69 overtime win over Northwestern.
Kansas and No. 11 Texas Tech are the only other ranked Big 12 teams.
KU plays host to Oklahoma on Jan. 2 to begin Big 12 play.
