A pair of home victories over Iowa State and West Virginia vaulted the Kansas men’s basketball team (14-2) up two spots in this week’s Associated Press Top 25.
Former No. 1 Baylor (15-2), which dropped home games to Texas Tech and Oklahoma State last week, remained the top-ranked team in the Big 12, falling four spots to No. 5.
Three other Big 12 programs — No. 15 Iowa State, No. 18 Texas Tech and No. 23 Texas — also landed in this week’s Top 25, with West Virginia, Oklahoma and TCU also receiving votes.
KU will play at Oklahoma at 6 p.m. Tuesday night on ESPN.
Gonzaga jumped into the top spot, with Auburn climbing to No. 2, marking its highest ranking since the 1999-2000 season. Arizona, Purdue and Baylor rounded out this week’s top five, with Duke, KU, Wisconsin, UCLA and Houston filling spots 6-10.
After falling on the road to Texas Tech on Jan. 8, the Jayhawks (14-2) bounced back with a tough win over No. 15 Iowa State three days later and a runaway win over West Virginia last weekend.
KU led WVU by just two at halftime but responded with one of its best halves of the season in the second half to win 85-59.
After traveling to Oklahoma and Kansas State (3 p.m. Saturday) in its next two games, the Jayhawks will jump into what could go down as their toughest stretch of the season, with five consecutive games against ranked teams on the schedule between Jan. 24 and Feb. 7.
Here’s a look at this week’s complete AP Top 25:
1 – Gonzaga, 14-2, 1,486 (25)
2 – Auburn, 16-1, 1,482 (36)
3 – Arizona, 14-1, 1,320
4 – Purdue, 14-2, 1,255
5 – Baylor, 15-2, 1,238
6 – Duke, 14-2, 1,205
7 – Kansas, 14-2, 1,192
8 – Wisconsin, 14-2, 1,056
9 – UCLA, 11-2, 1,041
10 – Houston, 15-2, 1,036
11 – Villanova, 13-4, 908
12 – Kentucky, 14-3, 804
13 – LSU, 15-2, 738
14 – Michigan State, 14-3, 681
15 – Iowa State, 14-3, 665
16 – USC, 14-3, 618
17 – Illinois, 13-3, 521
18 – Texas Tech, 13-4, 509
19 – Ohio State, 11-4, 465
20 – Xavier, 13-3, 427
21 – Providence, 14-2, 350
22 – Loyola Chicago, 13-2, 193
23 – Texas, 13-4, 185
24 – Tennessee, 11-5, 98
25 – UConn, 11-4, 73
**Others receiving votes:** Iowa 56, BYU 50, Davidson 34, Alabama 26, San Diego St. 25, Miami 21, Oregon 15, West Virginia 14, Colorado St. 13, Texas A&M 10, Oklahoma 7, TCU 4, North Carolina 2, Indiana 2.
