College Basketball: Kansas Tops Coaches Poll, Michigan Second

The coaches and writers disagree on the nation’s top team. Heck, the coaches, by and large, disagree among themselves.

Kansas is the new No. 1 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, fending off Michigan and dethroning Duke for the top spot. The Jayhawks received 16 out of a possible 31 first-place votes. The Wolverines, ranked first in the AP Poll and second by the coaches, received 14 first-place votes while fourth-ranked Florida received the remaining one.

Indiana (No. 3) and Duke (No. 5) complete the top tier of the poll. The Blue Devils coughed up their No. 1 ranking for the second time in as many weeks. In back of Duke, Syracuse (No. 6), Gonzaga (No. 7), Arizona (No. 8), Michigan State (No. 9) and Butler (No. 10) round out the Top 10. The Spartans lost on the road to Indiana on Sunday afternoon but managed to climb two spots from last week’s position.

In all, 14 of the 25 teams ranked in last week’s coaches’ poll lost at least once during the week. Three schools–Louisville, Kansas State and Minnesota–all lost twice. The Cardinals slid from fifth to thirteenth following their double-whammy during the week. The Wildcats also slid eight spots, from No. 13 to No. 21, while the Golden Gophers fell ten spots from No. 14 to No. 24.

Virginia Commonwealth and Notre Dame skipped out of the Top 25, replaced by Miami (No. 15) and Marquette (No. 25). The Hurricanes, which clubbed Duke in Coral Gables on Wednesday before holding serve against in-state rival Florida State over the weekend, made the largest jump into the coaches’ poll this season–the first such unranked team to vault into the Top 15 in one week.

• Others receiving votes: Georgetown 33, UNLV 32, Virginia Commonwealth 27, Wisconsin 25, Pittsburgh 18, Notre Dame 13, UCLA 10, Southern Miss 7, Baylor 7, Colorado State 6, Saint Mary’s 5, La Salle 3, Oklahoma State 3, Arizona State 2, Middle Tennessee 2, Louisiana Tech 1