Kentucky remains No. 1 in poll

Those young Kentucky Wildcats still have a firm grasp on the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 poll.And the team they lost to in April's national championship game in North Texas no longer is ranked.

Kentucky (7-0), outscoring opponents by an NCAA-best 36.8 points a game, again got 62 of 65 first-place votes Monday in the new rankings. No. 2 Wisconsin (7-0) was on top of the remaining ballotsafter winning the Battle 4 Atlantis championship in the Bahamas last week.

While the top of the poll held steady, Nos. 21-25 are all teams that were unranked last week, highlighted by No. 21 Maryland, the highest-ranked newcomer. Among the five falling out was defending national champion Connecticut (3-2), which lost its second straight game against a Big 12 team.

After falling to West Virginia in Puerto Rico, the Huskies returned home and lost 55-54 on Sunday when Texas forward Jonathan Holmes made an open 3-pointer in the final seconds.

The Longhorns (6-0) play at Kentucky on Friday night as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The Wildcats already have faced Big 12 favorite Kansas this season, beating that league's perennial champion 72-40 in Indianapolis.

Arizona and Duke remained third and fourth. Louisville, Texas, Virginia, Wichita State, Gonzaga and Villanova rounded out the top 10.

North Carolina helped one team get ranked and contributed to two others being knocked out of the poll.

The Tar Heels (5-1), who slipped seven spots to 12th, started last week with a 74-66 loss to Butler (5-1). The Bulldogs, who not so long ago reached consecutive national title games, moved into the new poll at No. 23.

Butler returned to the AP poll for the first time since Feb. 23, 2013.

After the loss to Butler, North Carolina rebounded with wins over then-No. 22 UCLA and then-No. 18 Florida. The Bruins and Gators, who both beat UAB in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, also lost other games last week and are now unranked.

The Gators fell out after 68 consecutive polls, which was the third-longest active streak behind Duke (140) and Kansas (108). Syracuse dropped out last week after being ranked in 80 consecutive polls.

Along with the loss to North Carolina, Florida also dropped an overtime decision against Georgetown, and UCLA lost to Oklahoma, which is 22nd.