NEW YORK, Sporting Alert – Villanova stayed at the No. 1 position in Week 7 of the AP Top 25 college basketball rankings on Monday.
In fact, the Top 6 retained their respective places this week after the latest set of fixtures last week.
Villanova collected 56 first-place votes for 1,614 points after beating Temple 78-57 in its lone fixture to improve to 11-0 on the season.
The Wildcats, who are on top of the rankings for a third straight week, will next face American on Wednesday.
UCLA is ranked No. 2 again and received three first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel.
The Bruins (12-0) beat UC Santa Barbara and Ohio State last week to keep track on the defending champions, while collecting 1,514 points in the poll.
Kansas is ranked third this week, with Baylor, which got the other six No. 1 votes, Duke and Kentucky completing the six programs that held their respective positions a third consecutive week.
Gonzaga moved up one place to No. 1 and replaced North Carolina, which dropped one spot to No. 8 after losing 103-100 to Kentucky on Saturday.
Creighton and Louisville each moved up one slot to complete the Top 10.
West Virginia comes next at No. 11 and is followed by Virginia, Butler, Wisconsin, Purdue in the Top 15.
Indiana, which suffered an 83-78 defeat to Butler at the weekend, Xavier, Arizona, Saint Mary’s and Oregon, are 16 through 20.
The remaining five teams in the AP Top 25 this week are Florida State, South Carolina, Southern California, Cincinnati and Notre Dame.
Indiana was the biggest droppers this week after the Hoosiers were upset by the Butler Bulldogs and slipped seven places from ninth to No. 16
The South Carolina Gamecocks fell six places from 16th to 22nd with a 67-64 loss to Seton Hall.
AP Top 25 College Basketball Rankings
Week 7, December 19, 2016
RK TEAM RECORD
1 Villanova (56) 11-0
2 UCLA (3) 12-0
3 Kansas 10-1
4 Baylor (6) 11-0
5 Duke 10-1
6 Kentucky 10-1
7 Gonzaga 11-0
8 North Carolina 10-2
9 Creighton 11-0
10 Louisville 10-1
11 West Virginia 9-1
12 Virginia 9-1
13 Butler 10-1
14 Wisconsin 10-2
15 Purdue 9-2
16 Indiana 8-2
17 Xavier 9-2
18 Arizona 10-2
19 Saint Mary’s 8-1
20 Oregon 10-2
21 Florida State 11-1
22 South Carolina 9-1
23 USC 10-0
24 Cincinnati 9-2
25 Notre Dame 9-2
Other teams receiving votes: Florida 48, Virginia Tech 40, Maryland 27, Seton Hall 15, Oklahoma State 8, Valparaiso 7, Minnesota 6, Miami 5, Northwestern 4, Iowa State 1, Clemson 1, Kansas State 1, Loyola (CHI) 1
