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College basketball rankings, week 17: Villanova drops to #3/2 in latest polls

As far as poll drops go, not so bad!

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

It was expected; Villanova's midweek loss to Xavier meant the Wildcats were surely to drop from the #1 spot, and they've done just that. However, another week brought more losses to the Top 10 and Villanova's road loss wasn't as bad as some of the others.

Kansas is the new #1 ending Villanova's three-week streak at the top, as the Wildcats fell to #3 in the latest AP Top 25. Michigan State, Virginia, and Xavier rounded out the Top 5.

A mid-week loss at #5 Xavier was enough to push the Wildcats from the #1 spot with the Jayhawks and Spartans having a good week, but in this year of parity across college basketball it was about as acceptable a loss as you'll find in the entire season.

Seton Hall, who has been on a tear recently and just took out Xavier at home over the weekend, was surprisingly left out of both polls.

Villanova, who was tabbed at #2 in the Coaches Poll, next hosts DePaul on Tuesday night at The Pavilion where they can lock up their third straight Big East regular season championship.

AP Top 25

RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS
1 Kansas Jayhawks (63) 25-4 1,623
2 Michigan State Spartans (2) 24-5 1,510
3 Villanova Wildcats 25-4 1,479
4 Virginia Cavaliers 22-6 1,405
5 Xavier Musketeers 25-4 1,356
6 Oklahoma Sooners 22-6 1,297
7 Miami-Florida Hurricanes 23-5 1,211
8 North Carolina Tar Heels 23-6 1,205
9 Oregon Ducks 23-6 1,065
10 West Virginia Mountaineers 22-7 1,056
11 Louisville Cardinals 22-7 822
12 Indiana Hoosiers 23-6 819
13 Utah Utes 23-7 751
14 Maryland Terrapins 23-6 733
15 Purdue Boilermakers 22-7 613
16 Iowa Hawkeyes 20-8 572
17 Duke Blue Devils 21-8 495
18 Arizona Wildcats 22-7 450
19 Baylor Bears 21-8 447
20 Texas A&M Aggies 22-7 419
21 Iowa State Cyclones 20-9 413
22 Kentucky Wildcats 21-8 405
23 Texas Longhorns 19-10 338
24 SMU Mustangs 24-4 196
25 California Golden Bears 21-8 178
Others receiving votes: Wisconsin 93, Seton Hall 60, Wichita St 43, Saint Joseph's 29, Notre Dame 14, Texas Tech 12, Cincinnati 4, Vanderbilt 3, Saint Mary's 3, Arkansas-Little Rock 2, Valparaiso 2, Dayton 1, Stephen F. Austin 1
Dropped out: Notre Dame 23.


USA TODAY Coaches Poll

RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS PREV HI/LOW
1 Kansas (31) 25-4 799 2 1/7
2 Villanova 25-4 734 1 1/17
3 Michigan St (1) 24-5 733 7 1/13
4 Virginia 22-6 673 3 3/13
5 Xavier 25-4 637 5 4/NR
6 Oklahoma 22-6 623 4 1/8
7 Miami-Florida 23-5 607 11 9/NR
8 North Carolina 23-6 584 6 1/11
9 West Virginia 22-7 518 12 7/23
10 Oregon 23-6 510 13 12/NR
11 Indiana 23-6 434 15 14/NR
12 Maryland 23-6 405 9 2/9
13 Purdue 22-7 330 19 8/24
13 Utah 23-7 330 23 16/NR
15 Iowa 20-8 321 8 4/NR
16 Arizona 22-7 307 10 6/20
17 Baylor 21-8 288 16 13/25
18 Texas A&M 22-7 261 21 5/NR
19 Kentucky 21-8 226 14 1/21
20 Iowa St. 20-9 221 17 2/21
21 Duke 21-8 211 18 3/NR
22 Texas 19-10 187 25 25/NR
23 Wichita St. 23-7 68 28 11/NR
24 St. Mary's 24-4 61 27 25/NR
25 California 21-8 58 32 13/NR
Others receiving votes: Wisconsin 52; Notre Dame 42; Seton Hall 39; Texas Tech 36; Providence 28; St. Joseph?s 17; Pittsburgh 17; South Carolina 16; Dayton 14; Valparaiso 6; St. Bonaventure 4; Colorado 2; Arkansas-Little Rock 1.
Dropped out: SNo. 20 Notre Dame, No. 22 Dayton, No. 24 Providence.