Three Big 12 Conference men’s basketball teams currently reside in the Associated Press top 10, but the Kansas Jayhawks are not one of them.
In fact, after a rough week that saw KU squeak by TCU at home and fall to Tennessee in ugly fashion on the road, the Jayhawks fell eight spots in this week’s AP poll, from No. 15 to No. 23.
The tumble — KU’s second straight after falling from No. 9 to No. 15 the week before — puts in jeopardy KU’s NCAA-record streak of consecutive weeks ranked in the AP poll, which grew to 231 in a row on Monday.
Of the three top-10 teams in the Big 12, KU still has to play two of them, when No. 6 Texas hosts KU on Feb. 22 and No. 2 Baylor comes to Lawrence on Feb. 27, the final game of the regular season.
Beyond that, KU also still has games at No. 17 West Virginia (1 p.m. Saturday) and home against No. 13 Texas Tech (Feb. 20) before the regular season wraps up.
That’s four games in the final nine against teams ranked ahead of them, and a fifth — Feb. 8 vs. Oklahoma State — against a team that’s currently ranked No. 26.
The rest of KU’s schedule looks much easier, with four games against Big 12 bottom feeders Kansas State and Iowa State coming up in the next two weeks. But those other five matchups look awfully tough and could be problematic if Kansas doesn’t start playing better than it did for most of January.
Next up, the Jayhawks will host K-State at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night (on Big 12 Now/ESPN+) at Allen Fieldhouse, before heading to West Virginia this weekend.
KenPom.com lists KU as an 18-point favorite over the Wildcats, with a win probability of 94%.
In other Top 25 news this week…
• The top four spots in the AP poll remained the same, with Gonzaga, Baylor, Villanova and Michigan holding strong. Gonzaga received 61 first-place votes and Baylor got the other three.
• Houston and Texas flip-flopped spots at No. 5 and No. 6, with the Longhorns dropping a spot after falling to Oklahoma.
• Speaking of OU, which knocked off top-10 foes Kansas, Texas and Alabama in succession in the past two weeks, the Sooners jumped all the way up from No. 24 to No. 9.
• Florida, Purdue and Drake all jumped into this week’s poll after being unranked last week.
Here’s a look at this week’s complete AP poll:
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1 – Gonzaga, 17-0, 1,597 (61)
2 – Baylor, 16-0, 1,539 (3)
3 – Villanova, 11-1, 1,458
4 – Michigan, 13-1, 1,402
5 – Houston, 15-1, 1,348
6 – Texas, 11-3, 1,228
7 – Ohio State, 14-4, 1,133
8 – Iowa, 12-4, 1,079
9 – Oklahoma, 11-4, 966
10 – Alabama, 14-4, 958
11 – Tennessee, 12-3, 869
12 – Illinois, 11-5, 850
13 – Texas Tech, 12-5, 797
14 – Virginia, 11-3, 752
15 – Creighton, 13-4, 732
16 – Virginia Tech, 13-3, 718
17 – West Virginia, 11-5, 669
18 – Missouri, 11-3, 589
19 – Wisconsin, 13-5, 452
20 – Florida State, 10-3, 393
21 – UCLA, 13-3, 260
22 – Florida, 10-4, 196
23 – Kansas, 11-6, 171
24 – Purdue, 12-6, 130
25 – Drake, 16-0, 117
**Others receiving votes:** Oklahoma State 111, USC 57, Loyola Chicago 52, Minnesota 42, Xavier 25, Boise State 23, St. Bonaventure 19, Saint Louis 11, Belmont 11, Toledo 9, Oregon 8, Colorado 8, San Diego State 6, Connecticut 5, Louisville 4, North Carolina 3, Georgia Tech 2, Rutgers 1
