Arizona State leaps to No. 5 after upset of Kansas

Dec 11, 2017 - 6:37 PM Arizona State, unbeaten and coming off Sunday's win at then-No. 2 Kansas, has moved into the Associated Press college basketball top 10 for the first time since 1981.

Meanwhile, Villanova is the new No. 1 after Duke lost at unranked Boston College on Saturday. The Blue Devils were a unanimous pick at the top spot last week.

Villanova, which received 41 of 65 first-place votes, is followed in the Top 25 by Michigan State, Wichita State, Duke and Arizona State.

The Sun Devils, under third-year coach Bobby Hurley, received five first-place votes. The other 19 went to Michigan State.

Arizona State, which also holds a neutral-court win over Xavier, jumped 11 spots in this week's AP poll. The last time the Sun Devils were in the top 10 was in the final regular-season poll of the 1980-81 season. That team, which featured future NBA standouts Fat Lever, Byron Scott and Alton Lister, finished the regular season by winning at Oregon State, which was No. 1 and undefeated.

Rounding out this week's top 10 are Miami, North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Xavier.

West Virginia is at No. 11, followed by Gonzaga, Kansas, TCU, Seton Hall, Virginia, Purdue, Notre Dame, Florida State and Tennessee.

The final five are No. 21 Baylor and then Florida, Arizona, Texas Tech and Cincinnati.

Arizona State improved to 9-0 with a 95-85 win at Kansas in which the fast-paced, hot-shooting Sun Devils scored 58 points after halftime and finished with the most points by an opponent in Allen Fieldhouse in a regulation game since Kentucky had 95 on Dec. 9, 1989.

"It's a blur to me right now," Hurley said after the game. "I just remember us generating more stops."

Mostly, though, ASU is about guard-heavy offense. Arizona State is fourth nationally with 91.8 points per game. Guards Tra Holder (21.2 points per game) and Shannon Evans II (19.0) lead the attack.

"You've got to be really turned up in order to keep up with them from a speed standpoint," said Kansas coach Bill Self. "They basically played six guys and had all the energy."

Kansas is on a two-game skid, also having lost last week to another Pac-12 school, Washington, in Kansas City.

Minnesota, Nevada and USC fell out of this week's poll.

Arizona is back in the rankings at No. 23 after a two-week absence after the Wildcats fell from No. 2 to unranked after losing three consecutive games at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. Florida State and Texas Tech are the other additions this week.