Kansas basketball climbs to 5th in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll

By Matt Tait     Feb 21, 2022

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Kansas players celebrate a win against West Virginia in an NCAA college basketball game in Morgantown, W.Va., Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022.

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.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.