The Duke Blue Devils, who looked so impressive in their run through the Maui Invitational, vaulted over Kansas today and into the No. 1 spot in the AP college basketball poll.
Duke (5-0), which beat then top-ranked Arizona handily in the title game at Maui on Wednesday, is No. 1 for the first time since January 1994 and for the fourth season in the last seven.The Blue Devils received 31 first-place votes and 1,695 points from the media panel, while Kansas (6-0), which won the Preseason NIT, held second with 28 No. 1 votes and 1,678 points.
North Carolina (6-0), the champions of the Great Alaska Shootout, moved up one spot to third. The Tar Heels, who received 11 first-place votes, were only 21 points behind the Jayhawks.
Arizona (4-1) dropped from the top spot to fourth, and was followed by South Carolina, Purdue, Kentucky, New Mexico, Xavier and Iowa.
Purdue and Kentucky each took their first losses of the season at the hands of higher-ranked teams last week. The Boilermakers were beaten by North Carolina in the championship game at Alaska, while Kentucky lost to Arizona in the Maui semifinals in a rematch of last season's NCAA championship game, which was won by Arizona.
In addition to scrambling the Top Ten, the holiday tournaments accounted for some heavy moving throughout the poll as five teams moved into the rankings, including three from the Atlantic Coast Conference to give the nine-school league seven teams in the Top 25.
Utah jumped five spots to lead the Second Ten and was followed by Stanford, Connecticut, Mississippi, UCLA, Fresno State, Clemson, Arkansas, Florida State and Temple.
The last five teams in the poll were Georgia, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Wake Forest and Princeton.
The five newcomers to the rankings were Arkansas, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Princeton.
The five schools that dropped out were Oklahoma, at 18th the highest ranked of those that fell, Louisville, Indiana, Rhode Island and North Carolina Charlotte.
Among the new teams Princeton has had the longest absence from the Top 25 having last been ranked in 1991 and before that not since 1976. Florida State was last ranked in 1994, and Georgia Tech was ranked in 1996. Arkansas and Wake Forest were both ranked last season.