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Xavier's split of tough Big East road games on the week landed them in the "receiving votes" section of the AP Poll for the second time this season. The Top 25 looks like this:
RANK | TEAM | Record | POINTS | PREV |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kentucky Wildcats (65) | 21-0 | 1625 | 1 |
2 | Gonzaga Bulldogs | 22-1 | 1503 | 3 |
3 | Virginia Cavaliers | 19-1 | 1470 | 2 |
4 | Duke Blue Devils | 18-3 | 1416 | 4 |
5 | Wisconsin Badgers | 19-2 | 1381 | 5 |
6 | Arizona Wildcats | 20-2 | 1338 | 6 |
7 | Villanova Wildcats | 19-2 | 1209 | 7 |
8 | Kansas Jayhawks | 18-3 | 1177 | 9 |
9 | Louisville Cardinals | 18-3 | 1114 | 10 |
10 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 20-3 | 1072 | 8 |
11 | Iowa State Cyclones | 16-4 | 892 | 15 |
12 | North Carolina Tar Heels | 17-5 | 861 | 13 |
13 | Utah Utes | 17-4 | 824 | 11 |
14 | Northern Iowa Panthers | 20-2 | 792 | 18 |
15 | West Virginia Mountaineers | 18-3 | 779 | 17 |
16 | Wichita State Shockers | 19-3 | 678 | 12 |
17 | Maryland Terrapins | 18-4 | 508 | 16 |
18 | Virginia Commonwealth Rams | 17-4 | 479 | 14 |
19 | Baylor Bears | 16-5 | 420 | 20 |
20 | Ohio State Buckeyes | 17-5 | 358 | 28 |
21 | Oklahoma Sooners | 14-7 | 312 | 24 |
22 | Butler Bulldogs | 16-6 | 250 | 25 |
23 | SMU Mustangs | 18-4 | 221 | 28 |
24 | Georgetown Hoyas | 16-6 | 162 | 21 |
25 | Texas Longhorns | 14-7 | 106 | 19 |
As you can see, Virginia's first loss of the season drops them to 3rd while Gonzaga moves up after beating Memphis and Portland, who are both bad. Xavier is 9th on the list of teams receiving votes, while Seton Hall sits second and former opponents Stephen F. Austin, Providence, and Murray St. make up three of the next four spots after Xavier. With some winnable games coming up, Xavier will be looking to crack the top 25 for the first time since December of 2011, when they ranked 14th before the post-brawl malaise took its toll.