The Blue Zone is back with another round of our thoughts on the latest AP rankings. Duke took a dip and a few teams made surprising jumps in this past week:
Lack of games hurts Duke
After having two consecutive conference games postponed, Duke had to go this entire past week without playing a game and the result was a one-spot drop in the rankings. The Blue Devils checked in at No. 21 this week, and have by far played the least amount of games in comparison to all of the other ranked teams.
Duke is scheduled to host Boston College and Wake Forest this week and one big question looms overhead in the lead up to the latter game: Will Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski be allowed to participate? After a potential COVID-19 exposure to a person outside of the team’s travel party, Duke announced Krzyzewski would not be allowed to coach against Florida State prior to the game postponement, and he will have to continue to be away from the team against the Eagles.
It is currently up in the air if he will be cleared to return to coach against Wake Forest.
Horns up
Texas has quietly been dominating this season, and the AP fully rewarded it after the Longhorns crushed Kansas by over 20 points. Their four-spot jump puts them at No. 4 and makes them the second-highest ranked Big 12 team behind Baylor.
Texas’ win against Kansas pushed the Jayhawks out to No. 6 and helped put Villanova back up to No. 3. Outside of No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 2 Baylor, the rest of the top five spots continue to change hands from week to week. Iowa is right behind the Longhorns at No. 5, largely due to its two wins against ranked opponents this past week, but the fight to remain a top-five team continues to be filled with hiccups and unexpected turns.
The big droppers
Florida State dropped the most spots out of anybody this week, with their seven-spot fall pushing them all the way to No. 25. The Seminoles suffered a loss to now-No. 19 Clemson and did not have a chance to respond with a win due to the postponement against Duke.
Michigan State and Houston were right behind Florida State, as each dropped six spots due to some major upsets by Minnesota and Tulsa, respectively. The Spartans are clinging to the No. 23 spot and Houston now finds itself knocking on the door of the top-10 at No. 11.
Complete rankings
1. Gonzaga
2. Baylor
3. Villanova
4. Texas
5. Iowa
6. Kansas
7. Creighton
8. Wisconsin
9. Tennessee
10. Michigan
11. Houston
12. Illinois
13. Missouri
14. West Virginia
15. Rutgers
16. Minnesota
17. Oregon
18. Texas Tech
19. Clemson
19. Virginia Tech
21. Duke
22. Virginia
23. Saint Louis
23. Michigan State
25. Florida State
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Jake Piazza is a Trinity senior and was sports editor of The Chronicle's 117th volume.