Those young Kentucky Wildcats still have a firm grasp on the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 poll. And the team Kentucky lost to in April’s national championship game in North Texas no longer is ranked.
Kentucky (7-0), outscoring opponents by an NCAA-best 36.8 points a game, again got 62 of the 65 first-place votes in the new rankings Monday following another pair of lopsided victories. No. 2 Wisconsin (7-0) was on top of the remaining ballots after winning the Battle 4 Atlantis championship in the Bahamas last week.
While the top of the poll steady, Nos. 21-25 are all teams that were unranked last week. Among the five falling out was defending national champion Connecticut (3-2), which lost its second straight game against a Big 12 team.
After falling to West Virginia in Puerto Rico, the Huskies returned home and lost 55-54 Sunday when Texas forward Jonathan Holmes made an open 3-pointer.
“Watching the ball go through the air, I didn’t even feel my ankle. It was like numb,” said UConn’s Ryan Boatright, who rolled his ankle while trying to get in position to contest the shot. “As soon as I saw the ball go through the basket … the pain just went crazy.”