Kansas Back at #1 in AP Poll. Online sportsbook has the Kansas Jayhawks back at #1 in the AP poll after a three week hiatus. The Texas Longhorns and Kentucky Wildcats had their shots but both teams fell after reaching #1. Sportsbook had Kansas as #1 in the preseason poll and for the first eight weeks of the regular season.
Online sportsbook has Kansas at 20-1 this season. They are one of only four teams that has just one loss. The other three teams are second, third and fourth. Villanova is second and they are followed by Syracuse and Kentucky. Kansas received 54 of the 65 first-place votes. Villanova got four first-place votes while Syracuse got six. Kentucky even got one first-place vote.
Kansas is well aware that staying at #1 will not be easy. “There could be a new No. 1 next week, and the week after,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said, “Because when you play road league games, people are going to lose. It’s not a major upset. We won the national championship (in 2008) and lost three league games in five games. But I’d rather play like a No. 1-ranked team than be ranked No. 1. Hopefully, we can do that.”
Michigan State rounds out the Top 5 in the AP poll. They are followed by West Virginia, Georgetown, Purdue and Texas as online sportsbook info indicates. The Longhorns have now dropped from #1 all the way to ninth. They have lost three of their last four games vs. sportsbook odds since going to #1. Duke and Kansas State were tied for 10th. BYU is 12th and they are followed by Ohio State, Tennessee, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Gonzaga, Vanderbilt, Temple and Baylor. The last five teams in the AP top 25 are Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Butler, Northern Iowa and Mississippi. The two newcomers this week as online sportsbook indicated are Butler and Northern Iowa while Connecticut and UAB dropped out. Butler has won ten straight and they are unbeaten in the Horizon League. Sportsbook has Northern Iowa at 10-1 in the Missouri Valley.
The Final Four teams from last year at the online sportsbook were Villanova, Michigan State, Connecticut and North Carolina. The Wildcats and Spartans look like Final Four contenders again while Connecticut and North Carolina might not even make the tournament.
Online sportsbook has five games between the ranked teams this week. On Saturday at the online sportsbook it will be Villanova at Georgetown. Other key games are Mississippi at Kentucky and Michigan State at Wisconsin on Tuesday. It is Pittsburgh at West Virginia on Wednesday in sportsbook action and Georgia Tech is at Duke on Thursday.