The Kansas men’s basketball team took another tumble in the Associated Press Top 25 this week, falling 10 spots to No. 33 and falling out of the Top 25 for the first time in 232 weeks.
The Jayhawks (12-7 overall, 6-5 Big 12) received 18 votes in this week’s poll, missing out on the 25th and final spot occupied by Rutgers by 47 votes.
The last time the Jayhawks were not ranked came in late January of 2009.
Since then, KU had remained in the poll — often in the top 10 — for an NCAA record 231 consecutive weeks.
That mark, which snapped UCLA’s record of 221 consecutive weeks ranked earlier this season, underlined the consistent and sustained excellence KU has experienced under head coach Bill Self, who now is in his 18th season in charge of the program.
“It’s a great deal,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of the record streak. “It’s sad (it came) to an end. But all we can do is hopefully play well enough to start another one.”
After opening the 2020-21 season at No. 6 in the rankings and hanging in the top five or 10 for most of the first couple of months, KU encountered significant struggles when Big 12 play began.
KU opened the season with an 8-1 record and climbed all the way to No. 3 in the AP poll.
The Jayhawks opened 2021 with a 25-point home loss to Texas and then went on to drop three in a row, at Oklahoma State, at Baylor and at Oklahoma.
That started the tumble. Two more road losses in recent weeks — at Tennessee on Jan. 30 and at West Virginia over the weekend — added to it, and the Jayhawks enter [tonight’s game with No. 23 Oklahoma State (8 p.m. on ESPN at Allen Fieldhouse)][1] having lost five of their last seven games.
The only wins for KU since Jan. 9 have come against Kansas State and TCU, both at home.
KU’s absence in this week’s poll merely adds to the list of tradition-rich and blue blood programs that have fallen on hard times this season.
Joining Kansas in the world of the unranked are Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan State. In fact, none of the 13 winningest programs in the history of college basketball are ranked in this week’s AP Top 25.
Perhaps even more amazingly is the fact that six of the Big 12’s 10 teams are ranked this week and Kansas is not one of them.
Top-ranked Gonzaga, at 89 straight weeks, now owns the nation’s longest active AP Top 25 streak.
Here’s a look at this week’s complete poll:
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1 – Gonzaga, 18-0, 1,567 (55)
2 – Baylor, 17-0, 1,520 (8)
3 – Michigan, 13-1, 1,438
4 – Ohio State, 15-4, 1,365
5 – Villanova, 12-2, 1,281
6 – Illinois, 13-5, 1,239
7 – Texas Tech, 14-5, 1,102
8 – Houston, 16-2, 1,060
9 – Virginia, 13-3, 969
10 – Missouri, 13-3, 966
11 – Alabama, 15-5, 911
12 – Oklahoma, 12-5, 863
13 – Texas, 11-5, 841
14 – West Virginia, 824
15 – Iowa, 13-6, 757
16 – Tennessee, 13-4, 690
17 – Florida State, 10-3, 514
18 – Virginia Tech, 14-4, 486
19 – Creighton, 14-5, 465
20 – USC, 15-3, 411
21 – Wisconsin, 14-6, 358
22 – Loyola Chicago, 0-0, 200
23 – Oklahoma State, 12-5, 181
24 – Purdue, 13-7, 85
25 – Rutgers, 11-6, 65
**Others receiving votes:** Colorado 41, San Diego State 38, Xavier 37, UCLA 35, Florida 29, Louisville 28, Belmont 25, Kansas 18, Drake 16, Minnesota 12, North Carolina 8, St. John’s 7, Toledo 6, Clemson 6, Arkansas 3, Boise State 3, Saint Louis 2, UAB 1, Virginia Commonwealth 1, BYU 1
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2021/feb/07/game-day-breakdown-kansas-basketball-vs-oklahoma-s/
