FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sporting Alert – Oklahoma, as expected, moves to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 college basketball rankings for Week 11, which was released on Monday.
The Sooners (15-1) collected all 65 first-place votes from the media panel for 1,625 points after picking up a pair of victories over Oklahoma State and West Virginia in last week’s schedule.
Those wins pushed Oklahoma to the top of the Big 12 standings as well, as the men from Norman also replaced Kansas as the nation’s top-ranked college basketball club.
Pre-season No. 1 North Carolina (16-2) climbed three places to No. 2 this week on the back of a 67-55 win over NC State last week. The Tar Heels collected 1,515 points this week.
Meanwhile, because of the craziness around the league this past weekend where no fewer than 11 top 25 ranked side stumbled, the Jayhawks (15-2) only slipped two spots to No. 3 this week.
After losing to West Virginia, Kansas rebounded to beat TCU 70-63 in the second game of its fixtures last week.
Villanova (16-2) is up two spots to No. 4, while Xavier (16-1) also leaped two placed to complete the top five.
West Virginia (15-2) which didn’t get a look in pre-season has been rewarded again for its positive form recently — jumping five slots to No. 6 this week on the back of the win over Kansas, although the Mountaineers were downed by Oklahoma in the next game.
Maryland (16-2) is down two places to No. 7, SMU (17-0) which remained the only unbeaten college basketball Divisional I side left this season, moves to No. 8, with Iowa (14-3) and Texas A&M (15-2) completing the top 10.
Overall, Baylor (14-3) were the biggest jumpers this week — moving up nine spots to No. 13, while defending champion Duke (14-4) which dropped its last two games against Clemson and Notre Dame, dipped 11 slots to No. 20.
The Blue Devils were stunned 68-63 by Clemson before going down at home, 95-91 against Notre Dame.
Kentucky (13-4) which spent two weeks as the No. 1 men’s college basketball DI team, fell nine places to No. 23 after a difficult week that ended with a 75-70 defeat to Auburn.
New to the rankings this week are USC (15-3) at No. 20 and Indiana (15-3) which cracked the top 25 at 25th.
Pittsburgh (20) and Gonzaga (25) fell out of the top 25 rankings this week.
| College Basketball AP Top 25: Wk 11 | |||
| RK | TEAM | RECORD | PTS |
| 1 | Oklahoma (65) | 15-1 | 1,625 |
| 2 | North Carolina | 16-2 | 1,515 |
| 3 | Kansas | 15-2 | 1,499 |
| 4 | Villanova | 16-2 | 1,403 |
| 5 | Xavier | 16-1 | 1,321 |
| 6 | West Virginia | 15-2 | 1,278 |
| 7 | Maryland | 16-2 | 1,259 |
| 8 | SMU | 17-0 | 1,179 |
| 9 | Iowa | 14-3 | 1,167 |
| 10 | Texas A&M | 15-2 | 994 |
| 11 | Michigan State | 16-3 | 950 |
| 12 | Arizona | 15-3 | 801 |
| 13 | Virginia | 13-4 | 649 |
| 13 | Baylor | 14-3 | 649 |
| 15 | Miami (FL) | 13-3 | 645 |
| 16 | Providence | 15-3 | 609 |
| 17 | Louisville | 14-3 | 608 |
| 18 | Butler | 13-4 | 439 |
| 19 | Iowa State | 13-4 | 411 |
| 20 | Duke | 14-4 | 375 |
| 21 | USC | 15-3 | 338 |
| 22 | Purdue | 15-3 | 322 |
| 23 | Kentucky | 13-4 | 276 |
| 24 | South Carolina | 16-1 | 252 |
| 25 | Indiana | 15-3 | 210 |
