The Blue Devils finished last week 2-0 after a road win against Louisville and a thrilling finish at home against Clemson, and now check in at No. 7 in the latest AP poll. The Blue Zone is here to break down movement in the poll around the country:
Slow crawl
After dropping one to Pittsburgh last week, Duke needed a solid week to allow it to keep slowly climbing up the standings. It wasn’t easy, but the Blue Devils found a way to come out 2-0 this week, sneaking by Louisville and Clemson in two tight contests. Tyrese Proctor was the real story of the week, as the sophomore guard seems to be finally breaking out into the player Duke fans expected him to be entering the season. As a result of their undefeated week, the Blue Devils jumped up to No. 7 this week.
Top ten woes
It has been a bad year to be ranked in the top 10 of the AP Poll, and this week was no different. Every team ranked in the bottom half of this tier suffered at least one loss this week, leading to a major shakeup in the rankings. Kentucky got its doors blown off by upstart South Carolina and Kansas dropped a road game at Iowa State, resulting in the two blue bloods falling to Nos. 10 and 8 respectively this week. Continuing down the line, Auburn, Arizona and Illinois all had at least one blemish, and the trio all fell out of the top 10 this week.
Upper echelon materializing
Even with all of the parity so far this season, there is a select group of teams that are beginning to establish themselves as elite. UConn looks like a serious threat to repeat as national champions, and the Huskies put out a statement win this week against Big East foe Xavier, as the No. 1 team in the country cruised to a 43-point victory. Purdue looks like a near lock as a 1-seed come tournament time thanks to likely Wooden Award winner Zach Edey, and the Boilermakers come in right behind UConn after a solid week. To close out the cream of the crop grouping, North Carolina continues to impress, as the Tar Heels survived a tough road test at Florida State, remaining at No. 3 heading into a matchup with their archrival this week.
Full rankings
1. UConn
2. Purdue
3. North Carolina
4. Houston
5. Tennessee
6. Wisconsin
7. Duke
8. Kansas
9. Marquette
10. Kentucky
11. Arizona
12. Iowa State
13. Creighton
14. Illinois
15. Texas Tech
16. Auburn
17. Utah State
18. Baylor
19. New Mexico
20. Florida Atlantic
21. Dayton
22. BYU
23. Oklahoma
24. Alabama
25. TCU
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