Thoughts on the AP poll: Duke drops two spots to No. 9, messy week sees movement across the poll

Sophomore center Kyle Filipowski shoots a free throw in Duke's game against North Carolina.
Sophomore center Kyle Filipowski shoots a free throw in Duke's game against North Carolina.

After an up-and-down week, Duke men’s basketball checks in at No. 9 in the latest AP poll. The Blue Zone is here to break down movement in the poll around the country: 

A Small Setback

To start its first rivalry week off, Duke survived a classic “trap game” at Virginia Tech. Against the Hokies, head coach Jon Scheyer’s squad was excellent — with four players in double figures and freshman guard Jared McCain just a point away from a double-double. In their marquee matchup, however, the Blue Devils failed to impress. North Carolina outplayed Duke from the start, and led nearly the entire 40 minutes. The Blue Devils were competitive with the Tar Heels, but never looked like the better side, and this week’s ranking at No. 9 acknowledges just that. North Carolina remains near the top, checking in at No. 3.

Four Top-10 Matchups

Outside of the state of North Carolina, the college basketball world had its fair share of excitement this weekend, with four top-ten matchups across the country. To start the weekend, then-No. 8 Kansas knocked off then-No. 4 Houston, and immediately following the Tobacco-Road rivalry, then-No. 5 Tennessee took down then-No. 10 Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. As a result of the matchups, the Jayhawks and the Volunteers rose to fourth and sixth in the polls, respectively, while the Cougars and the Wildcats dropped to fifth and 17th, respectively. Moving on to Sunday, then-No. 2 Purdue outlasted then-No. 6 Wisconsin, who lost its second straight this week. While the Badgers dropped to 11th, the Boilermakers continued to stack their already loaded in-season resume, and look heads-and-shoulders above any other squad in the Big 10. 

Chaos in the Big 12

Perhaps the deepest conference in basketball, the Big 12 delivered entertaining basketball all weekend — most notably having multiple ranked programs fall to lower or unranked teams. Outside of Kansas-Houston, the most notable upset was arguably unranked Cincinnati going to Lubbock, Tex., and knocking off then-No. 15 Texas Tech, dropping the Red Raiders to 23rd in the poll. The Big 12 still has six teams in the poll, though, tops of any conference.

Full Rankings:

1. UConn

2. Purdue

3. North Carolina

4. Kansas

5. Houston

6. Tennessee

7. Marquette

8. Arizona

9. Duke

10. Illinois

11. Wisconsin

12. Auburn

13. Baylor

14. Iowa State

15. South Carolina

16. Alabama

17. Kentucky

18. Dayton

19. Creighton

20. Florida Atlantic

21. BYU

22. Utah State

23. Texas Tech

24. San Diego State

25. New Mexico

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