TULSA, OK, Sporting Alert – Kansas remains No. 1 in the AP College Basketball Top 25 rankings for Week 18, according to the latest release on Monday.
The Big 12 regular season champions were holding the top spot for the second straight week and for the fourth time in the AP college basketball poll this season.
The Jayhawks (27-4), who secured a pair of victories last week over Texas and Iowa State, collected 63 of the 65 total first-place votes for 1,623 points.
Since losing to Iowa State on the road on Jan 25, Kansas has won 11 straight games, and the men from Lawrence will be hoping to keep the form going as they head into the Big 12 Tournaments seeking their first conference tourney title since 2013.
Meanwhile, Michigan State (26-5), which collected the other two first-place votes this week, remains No. 2 in Week 18.
The Spartans, who finished second in the Big Ten regular season standings behind Indiana, received 1,520 points.
In its fixtures last week, Michigan State beat Rutgers, 97-66 and Ohio State, 91-76 to extend its winning streak to six games and 10th in the last 11 games.
Villanova (27-4), Virginia (24-6) and Xavier (26-4) complete the top five, with Oklahoma staying No. 6, as the top six positions in the AP rankings this season didn’t change.
North Carolina, behind wins over Syracuse and Duke last week, moved up one place to No. 7 this week while Oregon, West Virginia and Indiana rounded out the top 10 spots.
Miami, which dropped four places after losing to Virginia Tech, 77-62, is joined by Utah, Purdue, Louisville and Arizona in the top 15 this week.
Kentucky is up six places to No. 16, following wins over Florida and LSU while Maryland dropped four spots to No. 18 and Duke dipped two places to No. 19.
There were no newcomers in this week’s AP college basketball top 25 rankings as we gear up for the respective conference tournaments.
Complete College Week 15 AP Rankings
RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Kansas (63) 27-4 1,623
2 Michigan State (2) 26-5 1,520
3 Villanova 27-4 1,480
4 Virginia 24-6 1,424
5 Xavier 26-4 1,351
6 Oklahoma 24-6 1,309
7 North Carolina 25-6 1,252
8 Oregon 25-6 1,127
9 West Virginia 24-7 1,113
10 Indiana 25-6 1,038
11 Miami 24-6 935
12 Utah 24-7 898
13 Purdue 24-7 798
14 Louisville 23-8 647
15 Arizona 24-7 626
16 Kentucky 23-8 608
17 Texas A&M 24-7 574
18 Maryland 24-7 544
19 Duke 22-9 512
20 Iowa 21-9 407
21 Iowa State 21-10 374
22 Baylor 21-10 262
23 Texas 20-11 191
24 California 22-9 189
25 SMU 25-5 88
Others receiving votes: Wisconsin 62, Dayton 35, Saint Mary’s 33, Seton Hall 28, Stephen F. Austin 9, Butler 8, Providence 8, Valparaiso 7, Yale 7, St Bonaventure 6, Cincinnati 6, Gonzaga 5, Temple 4, Akron 4, Notre Dame 3, San Diego State 3, UAB 2, Northern Iowa 1, Texas Tech 1, South Dakota State 1, South Carolina 1, Wichita St 1
