The Kansas men’s basketball team jumped back into the Associated Press top five this week on the heels of wins over Oklahoma State and West Virginia.
KU (22-4 overall, 11-2 Big 12) moved up one spot from No. 6 to No. 5 and is now the highest of three Big 12 teams ranked in the Top 10.
The Jayhawks missed out on claiming the No. 4 spot by just two points.
Texas Tech moved up two spots to No. 9 and Baylor dropped three spots to No. 10 after falling to Texas Tech.
Texas, which also lost to Texas Tech last week, remained at No. 20.
No other Big 12 programs received votes in this week’s poll, a trend that added to the concern around the conference that the Big 12 is losing spots in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
“When they start talking about only (getting) five or maybe six teams (in the NCAA Tournament), it just baffles me,” Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said Monday in a Zoom meeting with media members to preview Tuesday’s game at Kansas. “We’ve had such good success. It would be a shame if we’d only get that many teams because of how good our league is. We just beat each other up.”
Added Kansas coach Bill Self on Monday afternoon: “Bruce is right. It would be awful if (only) five got in because we beat the heck out of each other.”
Gonzaga remained at No. 1 overall and received all 61 first-place votes after Auburn suffered another defeat. Auburn fell a spot to No. 3 and Arizona jumped up to No. 2. Purdue and Kansas rounded out the top five at Nos. 4 and 5 in this week’s poll.
They were followed by Kentucky, Duke and Villanova ahead of Texas Tech and Baylor in rounding out the top 10.
**Here’s a look at this week’s complete AP Top 25:**
1 – Gonzaga, 23-2, 1,525 (61)
2 – Arizona, 24-2, 1,461
3 – Auburn, 24-3, 1,313
4 – Purdue, 24-4, 1,299
5 – Kansas, 22-4, 1,297
6 – Kentucky, 22-5, 1,248
7 – Duke, 23-4, 1,146
8 – Villanova, 21-6, 1,071
9 – Texas Tech, 21-6, 1,066
10 – Baylor, 22-5, 984
11 – Providence, 22-3, 910
12 – UCLA, 19-5, 802
13 – Wisconsin, 21-5, 735
14 – Houston, 22-4, 734
15 – Illinois, 19-7, 666
16 – USC, 23-4, 586
17 – Tennessee, 19-7, 580
18 – Arkansas, 21-6, 502
19 – Murray State, 26-2, 371
20 – Texas, 19-8, 349
21 – Connecticut, 19-7, 340
22 – Ohio State, 16-7, 320
23 – Saint Mary’s, 22-6, 148
24 – Alabama, 17-10, 63
25 – Iowa, 18-8, 59
**Others receiving votes:** Michigan State 58, Rutgers 35, Wyoming 24, Boise State 22, Davidson 19, San Diego State 14, South Dakota State 13, LSU 13, Marquette 12, Wake Forest 11, Colorado State 10, Belmont 5, Notre Dame 4, SMU 3, Xavier 2, North Texas 2, Creighton 1, Vermont 1, Wagner 1.