Another week of upsets and tight conference games caused an overhaul in this week's AP Poll, with three top-five teams and five in the top 10 losing—including the previously-No. 9 Blue Devils.
Blue Devils plummet back out of top 10, fall to No. 20
After foul trouble plagued head coach Mike Krzyzewski's team in a 68-63 loss Wednesday at Clemson, the Blue Devils were unable to bounce back Saturday at home against Notre Dame. Fighting Irish forward Bonzie Colson had a career-high 31 points and 11 rebounds as Notre Dame won a high-scoring contest 95-91 at Cameron Indoor Stadium and handed Duke its first home loss of the season. Despite a career-high 30-point outburst from freshman guard Luke Kennard, the Blue Devils could not get the stops they needed Saturday and fell to 3-2 in ACC play—two games behind No. 2 North Carolina—and 14-4 on the season. With the loss, Duke fell 11 spots to No. 20 in this week's poll and will look to rebound with games against Syracuse and N.C. State this week.
A new No. 1
Last week's No. 1—Kansas—fell at then-No. 11 West Virginia 74-63 Tuesday after committing 22 turnovers and 32 personal fouls, which led to 47 Mountaineer free throw attempts. The Jayhawk loss gave previously-No. 2 Oklahoma the opportunity to claim the top spot in this week's poll, and the Sooners seized the opportunity at home against West Virginia and its vaunted press defense Saturday. National Player of the Year candidate Buddy Hield scored 17 points and a tip-in by forward Khadeem Lattin gave the Sooners a dramatic 70-68 win and the team's first No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll since 1989. After another busy week in the Big 12, Oklahoma (No. 1), Kansas (No. 3), West Virginia (No. 6) and Baylor (No. 13) are tied atop the conference at 4-1.
Three top-15 teams swept
Duke was not the only top-15 team that suffered two losses last week. Then-No. 4 Michigan State got star swingman Denzel Valentine back from a knee injury but suffered its second loss of the season to then-No. 16 Iowa 76-59 at home Thursday and also fell 77-76 Sunday at Wisconsin after an Ethan Happ layup with 10.2 seconds left in the game gave the Badgers a late lead. Previously-No. 8 Miami also got swept last week, falling at then-No. 13 Virginia 66-58 Tuesday and losing 76-65 on the road at Clemson Saturday. Both teams suffered their second and third losses of the season and fell to No. 11 and 15 this week, respectively. After sweeping the Spartans, the Hawkeyes—who lead the Big Ten with Indiana at 5-0 in league play—moved up to No. 9 this week. The Cavaliers briefly got back on track with the home win against the Hurricanes, but then suffered another conference loss Sunday night at Florida State. Tony Bennett's squad held pat at No. 13 for the second straight week.
More carnage in the top 15
The almost-daily upsets will likely continue as conference play wears on, and several teams benefited by making big moves in this week's poll. With losses by previously-No. 3 Maryland 70-67 at Michigan, then-No. 12 Providence 81-72 against Seton Hall and previously-No. 14 Kentucky 75-70 at Auburn, Villanova (No. 4) and Xavier (No. 5) moved into the top 5, Southern Methodist—the only undefeated team left in the country—moved up two spots to No. 8 and Texas A&M continued its strong start to SEC play and rose five spots to No. 10 this week. More shakeups are likely to come next week, as another busy week of conference action is headlined by a Big Ten battle Saturday night in East Lansing between No. 7 Maryland and No. 11 Michigan State.
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