Villanova stays No. 1 in AP poll; Duke re-enters at No. 20

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Monday, February 15, 2016

Villanovais No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 for a second week and Kansas, coming off wins over two top-10 teams, jumps four places to second.

Duke, which had one of the longest consecutive poll streaks ever, returns at No. 20 after two weeks out of the Top 25.

Villanova (22-3) received 44 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel on Monday, with Kansas (21-4) getting the other 21.

Villanova is now one of six schools to have been No. 1 for two weeks, and it's quite a group the Wildcats joined.

Louisville is the only one of the six to have split the weeks at the top between two seasons -- 2008-09 and 2012-13. Two others made the jump to the top in recent years: Alabama in 2002-03 and Texas in 2009-10.

The other two schools have had a long run without being on top: Duquesne was No. 1 for two weeks in 1953-54 and Saint Louis was No. 1 in the very first two AP polls in 1948-49.

One of the longest streaks of consecutive poll appearances ended two weeks ago when Duke dropped out of the rankings. Its run of 167 consecutive polls started with the preseason Top 25 of 2006-07. A run of four losses in five games knocked the Blue Devils from the ranks of the ranked.

A four-game winning streak has Duke (19-6) at No. 20 and if the Blue Devils go on a run similar to their last one they will be ranked until sometime in the 2024-25 season.

Oklahoma, which lost to Kansas in their rematch, and Iowastayed third and fourth. North Carolinajumped four places to fifth and was followed by Maryland, which had been No. 2, and Virginia. Michigan Stateand Xavierare tied for eighth and West Virginia, which also lost to Kansas, is 10th.

Joining Duke as newcomers are No. 19 Notre Dameand No. 22 Indiana. All three were ranked in the preseason poll with Duke No. 5, Indiana No. 15 and Notre Dame No. 19.

Notre Dame (18-7) was ranked for the first two regular season polls, fell out and returned as No. 25 three weeks ago only to fall out again. The Fighting Irish return on a three-game winning streak and having won four of five with two of the wins over North Carolina and Louisville.

Indiana (20-6) had the same start to the season as Notre Dame but the Hoosiers returned for a three-week stint before dropping out last week. The Hoosiers come back to the rankings having lost two of their last three games -- the win was over No. 4 Iowa. Before that they had won six of seven.

Falling out of the poll wasTexas A&M, USCand Wichita State.

Texas A&M had the biggest drop of the three schools to fall out of the Top 25. The Aggies (18-7), who were No. 15 last week, had been ranked for nine straight weeks reaching as high as No. 8. A four-game losing streak did in the Aggies, who started the Southeastern Conference 7-0 and are now 7-5 in the league.

USC fell from 23rd after losing both games on its trip to the Arizona schools. The Trojans (18-7) had been ranked for two weeks before dropping out for one.

Wichita State (18-7) saw its 43-game home winning streak snapped by Northern Iowa and that dropped the Shockers out from No. 25. Wichita State was No. 10 in the preseason rankings and was ranked for two more weeks before falling out until returning three weeks ago.

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