MIAMI – Villanova is the new No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 college basketball rankings in Week 5, while Kentucky fell five places to sixth on Monday.
Villanova collected 57 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel for 1,613 points on Monday to move up one spot from last week rankings.
The Wildcats stayed undefeated and improved to 8-0 on the season with a pair of wins last week over Penn and Saint Joe’s.
UCLA (9-0), which stunned No. 1 Kentucky 97-92 on Saturday, vaulted nine places from 11th to second with two first-place votes and 1,478 points.
Big 12 champion Kansas (7-1) is up one spot to No. 3, while Baylor (8-0) jumped from ninth to No. 4 and received the other six first-place votes from the media panel.
Preseason top-ranked outfit Duke stayed No. 5 in the rankings, despite picking up wins over Michigan State and Maine.
Kentucky, which replaced Duke as the early season No. 1 team and occupied the top-ranked spot for the past two weeks, dropped to sixth after the defeat to the Bruins.
The Wildcats are followed by North Carolina, Gonzaga, Indiana and Creighton in the AP Top 10.
The Tar Heels slipped four spots after suffering their first defeat of the season to the Hoosiers before bouncing back against Radford with a 95-50 win on Sunday.
Louisville comes in at 11th in the rankings this week and is traced by Saint Mary’s, Xavier, Virginia and West Virginia in the Top 15.
The Mountaineers jumped 10 slots this week from 25th to 15th after handing then-No. 6 Cavaliers their first loss of the season.
Butler, Wisconsin, Purdue, South Carolina and Arizona are 16 through 20.
The last five teams in this week’s rankings Florida, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Oregon and Iowa State.
Dropping from the AP Top 25 college basketball rankings in Week 5 are Rhode Island (21) and Syracuse (22).
The Rams fell out of the poll after dropping a pair of games against Valparaiso and Providence last week, while the Orange are out after losing to Wisconsin in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Ohio State, Florida State and Michigan State were among the teams receiving votes this week.
AP Top 25 College Basketball Rankings: Week 5
Monday, December 5, 2016
RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Villanova (57) 8-0 1,613
2 UCLA (2) 9-0 1,478
3 Kansas 7-1 1,458
4 Baylor (6) 8-0 1,437
5 Duke 8-1 1,389
6 Kentucky 7-1 1,274
7 North Carolina 8-1 1,234
8 Gonzaga 8-0 1,198
9 Indiana 7-1 1,103
10 Creighton 8-0 1,003
11 Louisville 7-1 901
12 Saint Mary’s 6-0 899
13 Xavier 7-1 784
14 Virginia 7-1 758
15 West Virginia 6-1 729
16 Butler 8-0 691
17 Wisconsin 7-2 655
18 Purdue 6-2 485
19 South Carolina 8-0 476
20 Arizona 6-2 320
21 Florida 7-1 285
22 Cincinnati 7-1 258
23 Notre Dame 8-0 197
24 Oregon 7-2 175
25 Iowa State 5-2 95
Dropped from the rankings: Rhode Island 21, Syracuse 22
Others receiving votes: Syracuse 45, USC 43, Ohio State 40, TCU 33, Florida State 18, Virginia Tech 11, California 10, Maryland 9, Valparaiso 7, Wichita St 5, Michigan State 3, Temple 3, UNC Wilmington 1, Minnesota 1, Fort Wayne 1
For more AP college basketball report: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and Complete Rankings
