AP Top 25 College Basketball Poll 2014 Week 17: Kentucky Still Tops as Rest of Field Reshuffles
ByThe Associated Press college basketball poll got its first major shake-up from top to bottom, though the Kentucky Wildcats (1) kept their stranglehold on all 65 first-place votes.
In week 17 of the Top 25 ranking, Kentucky, Virginia (2), Utah (13), Arkansas (18) and West Virginia (20) were the only teams not to move. Wisconsin (6) suffered the headline upset of the week, but only fell one place after recovering with a win.
Combined with upsets to Gonzaga and Kansas, the top 10 has a new look. Duke (3) moved up one place while Villanova (4) and Arizona (5) each moved up two to round out the top five.
Wichita State (7) leapfrogged Kansas after they beat Northern Iowa (11) for the Missouri Valley's top seed. Thanks to their upset of Wisconsin, Maryland (10) jumped four places to find themselves in the top 10.
In the last week of the regular season, Kentucky has just two more contests to try and go undefeated. However, they convincingly beat Arkansas (18) 84-67 and they were team many believed to be Kentucky's biggest challenge. As a testament to Kentucky's strength, Arkansas stayed put despite the loss.
Kentucky visits Georgia Tuesday night and then hosts Florida Saturday. The Wildcats will then need to try to continue their dominance into the SEC and NCAA Tournaments to cap off a perfect season.
Elsewhere in college basketball will be the Duke-North Carolina (19) rematch in Chapel Hill and Virginia's clash with Louisville (16). Virginia clinched the ACC's top seed, but there are still NCAA Tournament one seeds on the line.
In the Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 Kansas, Wisconsin and Arizona are trying to hang onto their respective conference titles. For Kansas, it would be their 11th consecutive conference title.