Kansas tumbles in both polls after first lost.
The loss for the Kansas Jayhawks on Friday against the Tennessee Volunteers sent the Jayhawks falling in both the AP Poll and Coaches Poll, as two teams used big holiday tournament performances to jump all the way into the top 5.
Last week, the Jayhawks rose all the way to #3 after a big win over Duke in the Champions Classic. But close wins over NC State and Wisconsin and a blowout loss to the Volunteers gave the voters all the excuse they needed to drop the Jayhawks significantly in the polls. This week, Kansas is ranked #9 in both polls.
Last week's #1, North Carolina, took the largest tumble after losing to both unranked Iowa State and Alabama in the Phil Knight Invitational, but they were hardly the only ones. The Houston Cougars benefitted the most from all the carnage, moving up to #1. Both polls have the same top 5, with Houston being followed by the Texas Longhorns, Virginia Cavaliers, Arizona Wildcats and Purdue Boilermakers. From there, with the exception of Kansas at #9 and Tennessee at #13, the polls disagree all the way down to #20 Michigan State. The AP Poll has Baylor, Creighton and UConn ahead of Kansas, with Indiana, Alabama and Arkansas right behind, while the Coaches Poll has UConn, Creighton and Indiana ahead of the Jayhawks, with Baylor, Arkansas and Gonzaga right behind.
There are four Big 12 teams in the polls, with Texas Tech dropping out of the rankings, but Iowa State joining at #23 in addition to Texas, Kansas and Baylor. TCU is just outside each poll, and Texas Tech, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kansas State are all in the "Others receiving votes" category.
The Big Ten ACC Challenge is giving us a couple games between teams ranked in the Top 25 polls, as Wednesday features Ohio State at Duke and North Carolina at Indiana. Thursday has Creighton visiting Texas as part of the Big East-Big 12 Battle. Friday has two matchups, as Baylor and Gonzaga meet in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Illinois travels to Maryland in Big Ten action.
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