Kansas' lead trimmed in AP men's basketball poll

[December 22, 2009]  LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- Kansas will be spending at least one more week atop The Associated Press' college basketball poll, a spot it has held all season.

Another Big 12 team from that state jumped to territory it hasn't been in over 25 years.

Kansas State moved up to No. 12 on Monday, its highest ranking since the Wildcats were ninth in the final poll of 1972-73.

The Jayhawks (10-0), who beat Michigan 75-64 in their only game last week, saw their lead over Texas trimmed a bit. They received 55 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel, six less than it had a week earlier. Those votes all went to Texas (10-0), which beat No. 10 North Carolina 103-90 on Saturday, and was No. 1 on seven ballots.

Kentucky (11-0) had one first-place vote and was third, followed by Purdue (10-0) and Syracuse (11-0), which was No. 1 on two ballots.

West Virginia, Duke and Villanova remained sixth through eighth, while Michigan State moved up three places to ninth and North Carolina remained 10th.

Connecticut moved up three spots to 11th and was followed by Kansas State, New Mexico, Georgetown, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio State, Florida, Texas A&M and Butler.

Temple is making its first appearance in the poll since November 2001, and was followed by Washington, Texas Tech, Clemson and Gonzaga.

Kansas State (10-1) beat Alabama 87-74 last week to run its winning streak to seven since an 86-74 loss to Mississippi in the semifinals of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Wildcats are ranked No. 1 in this week's RPI ratings.

Temple (9-2) made its move into the rankings after handing two Big East teams their first losses of the season. The Owls followed their win over Villanova with a 71-65 victory at Seton Hall on Saturday.

Clemson (10-2) moved back into the rankings after falling out for two weeks. The Tigers have won four straight since a 76-74 loss to Illinois.

Georgia Tech (8-2) fell out from 22nd after losing its Atlantic Coast Conference opener to Florida State 66-59 in overtime on Sunday. Cincinnati (7-3) moved into the poll at No. 19 two weeks ago, then fell out from 25th this week following consecutive losses to Xavier and UAB.

Two of this week's three games between ranked teams are on Tuesday, when Michigan State visits Texas and Texas A&M is at Washington. Mississippi visits West Virginia on Wednesday.

[Associated Press; By JIM O'CONNELL]

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