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College Basketball Top 25 Polls: Kentucky climbs, Duke falls, Kansas still in top 3

Kentucky is rising while Duke is falling, a new team at No. 1, and Kansas is still in the top five.

Porter Binks-USA TODAY Sports

The latest round of college basketball top-25 polls have the Kentucky Wildcats back on the upswing.

After nearly falling out of the top 25 last week, UK is firmly back in this week following impressive wins over Arkansas and Vanderbilt. The Cats come in at No. 19 this week in the newest Coaches Top 25 Poll, the same spot they held last week. UK also climbed up to No. 20 in the new AP Poll, which had the Cats ranked at No. 23 last week.

UK will get a major test this week when they hit the road to face a Kansas Jayhawks team that checks in at No. 3 in the Coaches Poll and No. 4 in the AP Poll. This, despite losing in embarrassing fashion at Oklahoma State last week. As bad as the loss was, KU is still one of the nation's best teams when they're hitting on all cylinders.

As for the top spot, the North Carolina Tar Heels are now back on top in the Coaches Poll. after opening the season there. Losses by Oklahoma, Villanova and Kansas last week allowed the Heels to regain the top spot with not much debate...

However, the AP Poll has the Sooners at the top spot, despite a close loss at No. 16/14 Iowa State last week. Oklahoma's only other loss is at Kansas, so there's a good case to be made they they're still the No. 1 team.

Here is the fully-updated Coaches Top 25 Poll:

TOP 25 TEAMS, WEEK 12

RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS 1ST PLACE VOTES PREV CHANGE HI/LOW
1 North Carolina 18-2 791 23 2 1 1/11
2 Oklahoma 16-2 766 9 1 -1 1/8
3 Kansas 16-3 680 0 3 0 1/7
4 Iowa 16-3 677 0 9 5 4/NR
5 Texas A&M 17-2 650 0 8 3 5/NR
6 Villanova 17-3 591 0 4 -2 4/17
7 Maryland 17-3 581 0 5 -2 2/9
8 Xavier 17-2 580 0 6 -2 6/NR
9 West Virginia 16-3 503 0 7 -2 7/23
10 Providence 17-3 452 0 17 7 9/NR
11 Michigan St 17-4 445 0 10 -1 1/13
12 Virginia 15-4 430 0 13 1 4/13
13 Miami-Florida 15-3 412 0 14 1 9/NR
14 Louisville 16-3 384 0 16 2 14/NR
15 Arizona 16-4 341 0 11 -4 6/16
16 Iowa St. 15-4 312 0 21 5 2/21
17 Indiana 17-3 290 0 23 6 14/NR
18 Baylor 15-4 281 0 15 -3 14/25
19 Kentucky 15-4 242 0 19 0 1/19
20 Duke 15-5 183 0 12 -8 3/20
21 Purdue 17-4 150 0 22 1 8/24
22 South Carolina 17-2 137 0 18 -4 15/NR
23 Pittsburgh 16-3 118 0 20 -3 17/NR
24 Oregon 16-4 90 0 29 5 16/NR
25 Wichita St. 14-5 60 0 30 5 11/NR
Here is the new AP Poll:

1
Oklahoma (36)
Big 12
Record: 16-2
PV Rank
1
Points
1,592
2
North Carolina (29)
ACC
Record: 18-2
2
1,586
3
Iowa
Big Ten
Record: 16-3
9
1,473
4
Kansas
Big 12
Record: 16-3
3
1,369
5
Texas A&M
SEC
Record: 17-2
10
1,332
6
Villanova
Big East
Record: 17-3
4
1,261
7
Xavier
Big East
Record: 17-2
5
1,186
8
Maryland
Big Ten
Record: 17-3
7
1,111
9
West Virginia
Big 12
Record: 16-3
6
1,105
10
Providence
Big East
Record: 17-3
16
1,005
11
Virginia
ACC
Record: 15-4
13
903
12
Michigan State
Big Ten
Record: 17-4
11
869
13
SMU
American Athletic Conference (AAC)
Record: 18-1
8
838
14
Iowa State
Big 12
Record: 15-4
19
792
15
Miami (FL)
ACC
Record: 15-3
15
753
16
Louisville
ACC
Record: 16-3
17
719
17
Baylor
Big 12
Record: 15-4
13
594
18
Arizona
Pac-12
Record: 16-4
12
502
19
Indiana
Big Ten
Record: 17-3
25
466
20
Kentucky
SEC
Record: 15-4
23
403
21
Purdue
Big Ten
Record: 17-4
22
328
22
Wichita State
Missouri Valley
Record: 14-5
28
151
23
Oregon
Pac-12
Record: 16-4
36
149
24
Duke
ACC
Record: 15-5
20
145
25
Notre Dame
ACC
Record: 14-5
30
136

Here's the latest offering from the CBS Sports Top 25 (and one), which thankfully is just for fun and doesn't really matter, especially since UK isn't even in their top 25.


TOP 25 (AND ONE)
Oklahoma
North Carolina
Iowa
Villanova
Texas A&M
Kansas
Xavier
Providence
Maryland
10 Virginia
11 West Virginia
12 Baylor
13 Iowa State
14 Miami (Fla.)
15 Michigan State
16 Louisville
17 Purdue
18 SMU
19 Indiana
20 Notre Dame
21 Wichita State
22 Dayton
23 Duke
24 Oregon
25 Butler
26 Arizona