
Duke Rises to Second in AP Rankings as Iowa State Faces Setback
Duke's impressive week propels them ahead of Iowa State following multiple losses among ranked teams.
There will be plenty of movement in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll on Monday after a wild week of conference play across the country. Eighteen ranked teams took at least one loss, and two of them fell twice. The only certainty is that No. 1 Auburn will remain No. 1.
It gets interesting at No. 2 after Iowa State climbed to that spot last week and fell a few days later 64-57 at West Virginia. The loss opens the door for Duke after it won twice this week and earned the longest active winning streak (12 games) in college hoops. That’s how I project the No. 2 spot to ultimately settle when the votes are tabulated Monday, with Iowa State dropping from its program-high position, but not far.
With so many losses by ranked teams, AP voters will have their work cut out for them to make sense of everything that transpired last week. So ahead of the refreshed rankings, I tried to crawl into the minds of AP voters to see how they might react to all the latest results.
My projected Top 25 – what I think the poll will look like based on how AP voters will sort it all out – will be shown in a table below:
Ranking | Team | Notes |
---|---|---|
1 | Auburn | Maintains the top spot |
2 | Duke | Climbed due to strong performance |
3 | Iowa St. | Loss to West Virginia |
4 | Alabama | Strong response after a loss |
5 | Florida | 1-1 record this week |
6 | Tennessee | Recent loss affects ranking |
7 | Kentucky | Mixed results in SEC play |
Projected to drop out: Gonzaga, Utah State, Baylor