Kentucky Remains Unanimous Choice at No. 1 and Top Futures

The latest AP Top 25 poll for college basketball was released on Monday afternoon. The top remained the same as the Kentucky Wildcats continue to dominant at 29-0 while the rest of the rankings saw a big shakeup as it was a tumultuous week that included big wins and wild upsets.

The Wildcats are the only remaining Division I men’s basketball team that is undefeated and did not budge from the top spot following two routs last week. Kentucky was the unanimous choice at No. 1 for the fifth consecutive week after receiving each of the 65 first place votes.

Kentucky needs just two more weeks in the top spot and will become only the eighth team and the polls’ first since UNLV back in 1991 to be No. 1 wire to wire in the poll.

The No. 2 spot was held onto by Virginia. The Cavaliers are 27-1 and recorded two lopsided victories during the week.

After the top 2 spots is where the changes began. This week 15 of the previous 25 in the poll were losers during the week including two teams that lost twice.

Wisconsin and Gonzaga were both losers, so each of the next 3 teams moved up. Duke is No. 3 after moving up one spot; Villanova moved up two to No. 4; Arizona two and is at No. 5.

The Badgers dropped to No. 6 following their loss to Maryland and the Bulldogs dropped four spots to No. 7 following its loss to BYU.

Wichita State is at No. 8 after clinching the Missouri Valley Conference in a showdown with rival Northern Iowa. The Kansas Jayhawks fell to No. 9 following its loss against Kansas State.

Maryland’s victories over Wisconsin as well as Michigan lifted the Terrapins to No. 10, which is the first time Maryland has been in the top 10 since 2003.

The first trip by Northern Iowa into the top 10 lasted all of one week after the Panthers dropped to No. 11 following its loss to Wichita State. Notre Dame was another team that dropped out of the poll’s top 10 after the Irish were beaten by Syracuse. Notre Dame is now No. 12.

Despite a multitude of changes, the poll’s top seven has been the same for the past seven weeks. That has not happened since 1992-83 when for eight consecutive weeks; the top seven remained the same.

Only three teams between No. 11 and No. 25 held steady. Utah was at No. 13, Arkansas stayed at No. 18 and West Virginia was still at No. 20, even though each of the three teams lost.

The biggest movement was made by Baylor at No. 14, which moved up five spots from No. 19 after defeating both West Virginia and Iowa State.

Iowa State, was victorious Monday night, but dropped the most in this week’s poll from No. 12 down to No. 17, after defeats to Baylor and Kansas State.

Current 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship Futures

Kentucky 1/1

Duke 8/1

Wisconsin 9/1

Arizona 12/1

Virginia 12/1

Gonzaga 14/1

Villanova 16/1

Kansas 25/1

Iowa State 28/1

Utah 28/1

North Carolina 33/1

Notre Dame 33/1

Louisville 40/1

Northern Iowa 50/1

Ohio State 50/1

Wichita State 50/1

Arkansas 66/1

Butler 66/1

Michigan State 66/1

Oklahoma 66/1

West Virginia 66/1

Baylor 75/1

LSU 75/1

Maryland 75/1

Oklahoma State 100/1

Ole Miss 100/1

San Diego State 100/1

SMU 100/1

Georgetown 150/1

Oregon 150/1

Texas 150/1

UConn 150/1

VCU 150/1

Dayton 200/1

Georgia 200/1

Indiana 200/1

Iowa 200/1

Miami FL 200/1

NC State 200/1

Providence 200/1

Purdue 200/1

Texas A&M 200/1

Xavier 200/1

BYU 300/1

Cincinnati 300/1

Colorado State 300/1

Illinois 300/1

Murray State 300/1

Pittsburgh 300/1

St. John’s 300/1

Stanford 300/1

Temple 300/1

UCLA 300/1

Florida 500/1

Harvard 500/1

Memphis 1000/1

Minnesota 1000/1

Vanderbilt 1000/1