Last week, the Duke Blue Devils received all but one first-place vote from the AP writers, with the lone hold out choosing Ohio State as the top team in the land. Apparently Duke's 26-point win over Elon was enough to convince him otherwise because the Blue Devils are the unanimous No.1 once again in the newest AP Top 25 Poll.
Ohio State remains No. 2, with Kansas, Connecticut and Syracuse rounding out the top-five.
Pittsburgh, Villanova and Georgetown are not far behind, meaning the Big East still claims a full half of the top 10. Given that this is the last pre-conference poll of the season, the Big East is going to have a very strong RPI for all of its member schools, meaning we may yet again see a glut of Big East teams in our brackets come March.
As for the rest of the poll, the SEC lost two teams from the poll in a struggling Florida and a free falling Tennessee, but gain Vanderbilt at No. 24. Louisville steps in at No. 22, and Temple squeaks in at No. 25.
The Big Ten can still claim five teams in the top 25, but preseason conference favorites Michigan State and Illinois have fallen to No. 20 and 23, respectively.
The complete Associated Press Top 25:
- Duke (65)
- Ohio State
- Kansas
- Connecticut
- Syracuse
- Pittsburgh
- San Diego State
- Villanova
- Georgetown
- Missouri
- Kentucky
- Purdue
- Texas
- Minnesota
- Notre Dame
- Brigham Young
- Kansas State
- Texas A&M
- UCF
- Michigan State
- Memphis
- Louisville
- Illinois
- Vanderbilt
- Temple