AP Top 25: BYU's win over Kansas drops Jayhawks out of top 10 for first time in 3 years

PROVO — BYU was back in the Associated Press Top 25 after a week off Monday after going 2-0 in a week that saw arguably the Big 12's biggest basketball brand drop out of contention for a conference title with its most losses since Bill Self took over Kansas 21 years ago.

The Cougars (21-8) moved up six spots to No. 20, while Utah State moved to No. 22 in the latest national media rankings. Following a 76-68 home loss to BYU, Kansas fell out of the AP top 10 for the first time in three years — and a subsequent 82-74 loss at No. 11 Baylor handed the Jayhawks a seventh loss in conference play, the most in Self's storied tenure.

The Cougars followed up their historic win at Allen Fieldhouse with a come-from-behind 87-75 home win over TCU, and are currently ranked No. 16 in KenPom and No. 12 in the NET.

Kansas (21-8) had spent three weeks at No. 1 earlier this season, but fell seven spots to No. 14 for its worst ranking since falling to No. 15 midway through the 2020-21 season. That's a span of 55 straight weeks in the AP top 10, previously the longest active streak in the country.

The streak now belongs to Houston (26-3), the top-rated team by the Associated Press with 52 of 62 possible first-place votes that has been in the top 10 for 36 straight weeks.

Utah State joins No. 21 San Diego State as ranked teams from the Mountain West after the Aggies (24-5) breezed to a 72-60 win over 9-19 Air Force.

Utah State is also ranked No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, its seventh week ranked in both national polls — the second-most ranked weeks in a season in program history. The 1959-60 team holds the program record for most ranked weeks at 11.

The Aggies also rate 42nd in KenPom, and No. 36 in the NET.

Following Houston, UConn (26-3) moved up one spot to No. 2 after wrapping up its first outright Big East regular-season title in 25 years with a 91-61 blowout win over Seton Hall. Purdue (26-3) inched down one spot to No. 3, followed by Tennessee (23-6) and Arizona (23-6).

"The hardest thing to do is to be excellent over the course of three, four months in a brutal, hard league," UConn coach Dan Hurley said, per the Associated Press.

The Big 12 and SEC are both tied for the most ranked teams with five after the Cougars re-entered the poll and Florida dropped out from No. 24. The Big East is third with three, followed by the Big Ten, Atlantic Coast, Pac-12, Mountain West and West Coast conferences with two each.

AP women's poll

Utah moved down four spots to No. 22 after a 62-47 loss to Washington in Saturday's regular-season finale.

South Carolina (29-0) rolled to a second straight undefeated regular season for the first time in program history to reassert itself as the No. 1-ranked team. Stanford (26-4) climbed two spots to No. 2, and Iowa (26-4) is up three positions to No. 3 after Caitlin Clark broke Pete Maravich's all-time NCAA career scoring record.

Ohio State (25-4) and USC (23-5) round out the top five.

Head coach Lynne Roberts' team will take the No. 6 seed into this week's Pac-12 Tournament, opening Wednesday against 11th-seeded Arizona State at 9:30 p.m. MST at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The winner faces third-seeded UCLA at 9:30 p.m. MST Thursday.

Both games will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.

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