With one week of play in the books, things are starting to shape up across college basketball, as seen in the latest AP poll:
Duke Rises to No. 1
Following a dominant performance against then-No. 2 Kentucky and a solid follow-up win over Army, Duke rose to the top spot in the AP poll—the Blue Devils received 48 of the 65 first place votes. The standout freshman trio of Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish continue to dominate, with the three combining for 74.5 percent of the team’s total points on the season. Williamson is particularly exceeding his already lofty expectations, with an 81.5 field-goal percentage and 3.5 blocks per game.
Kentucky falls 8 spots
After the aforementioned loss to the Blue Devils, Kentucky once again did not look the part of its preseason rankings when it beat Southern Illinois by just 12 points on Friday night. Tyler Herro, who was lauded as one of the top shooters in the Class of 2018, has failed to ignite the Wildcat offense, connected on just two of his 17 shot attempts thus far. However, the physicality of the team is evident, as Kentucky is getting to the free-throw line 32.5 times per game, led by Reid Travis and Keldon Johnson, who are averaging 9.5 and 8.5 attempts from the stripe per contest, respectively.
West Virginia drops out of the Top 25, Buffalo enters at No. 25
After upsetting Arizona in the first round of last season’s NCAA tournament, Buffalo began its season with an upset over then-No. 13 West Virginia. C.J. Massinburg absolutely torched the Mountaineer defense, putting up 43 points on just 22 shots, including 9 3-pointers. West Virginia clearly misses its all-time leader in steals Jevon Carter, who graduated in the spring.
Complete Rankings:
1. Duke
2. Kansas
3. Gonzaga
4. Virginia
5. Tennessee
6. Nevada
7. North Carolina
8. Villanova
9. Auburn
10. Kentucky
11. Michigan State
12. Kansas State
13. Oregon
14. Florida State
15. Syracuse
16. Virginia Tech
17. Mississippi State
18. Michigan
19. Clemson
20. UCLA
21. TCU
22. LSU
23. Purdue
24. Marquette
25. Buffalo
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