Associated Press Men's Basketball Top 25 Released for Week 19: Kentucky Makes History, Falls off Rankings
ByFor the fourth time ever, the preseason number-one team has fallen out of the Associated Press top 25 for men's basketball.
Kentucky, previously ranked 25th, and Iowa, previously ranked 24th, have been dropped from the week 19 edition of the rankings and replaced by Virginia Commonwealth (23) and Ohio State (24).
SMU (25) may have ended a 30-year absence from the top 25, but they fell seven places this week to within 70 votes from being left off entirely. Week 19 marks the end of the regular season and now several conference tournaments will begin.
However, Wichita State (2) remained in its place after winning the Missouri Valley Tournament. The Shockers will be the first team since UNLV in 1991 to enter the NCAA Tournament undefeated.
In the top-five Villanova (3) and Louisville (5) replaced Duke (7) and Virginia (6) after the latter two each suffered a loss in the final week. The Blue Devils exacted their revenge on UNC (15), but lost a major upset to Wake Forest. Virginia too suffered an upset, but at the hands of Maryland.
Louisville, the defending champions, beat SMU and Connecticut to finish their season as they head into the AAC Tournament looking like the favorites. While UConn, Memphis and SMU should not be overlooked, Cincinnati (13) has to be considered the largest threat to Louisville this postseason.
Kansas (10) won their 10th consecutive Big 12 title and are the favorites to win the conference tournament, but they ended their season losing two of three. Falling two spots in the rankings, the Jayhawks will be glad to have several days off before playing again, giving center Joel Embiid time to heal his back.
Further continuing their fall is Syracuse (11), who finished their season losing four of six despite starting off with 25 straight wins.
Florida (1) remains entrenched in their top spot and, along with Wichita State, has likely solidified themselves tournament one-seeds.