Duke remains No. 1 in AP Top 25 poll; Kentucky rises to 13th

NEW YORK -- Duke remains atop an AP Top 25 poll with few major changes after a light Christmas week schedule of games.

The Blue Devils earned 35 of 64 first-place votes to stay at No. 1 for the second straight week and fourth week this season, while the top 12 remained unchanged in the latest poll Monday.

Duke (11-1) hasn't played since beating No. 11 Texas Tech in New York on Dec. 20, making the Blue Devils one of five ranked teams to be off through the holiday week. That schedule featured zero matchups between ranked teams to limit potential movement in the poll, although that figures to change with conference play set to get rolling this week.

There was a top tier to the poll voting too. Second-ranked Michigan earned nine first-place votes, while No. 3 Tennessee earned 12. Fourth-ranked Virginia and fifth-ranked Kansas each earned four votes.

Kentucky was the highest-ranked climber, rising three spots to No. 13 after a win at rival Louisville -- which marked the Wildcats' third straight win against power conference opponents. No. 19 Houston also rose three spots.

Five teams rose two spots: No. 16 Marquette, No. 17 Mississippi State, No. 18 NC State, No. 21 Indiana and No. 23 Oklahoma.

No. 22 Wisconsin had the biggest slide of the week among ranked teams, falling seven spots after losing to Western Kentucky. Arizona State, which was ranked 17th after beating then-No. 1 Kansas,fell out of the poll after losing to Princeton.

Nebraska was the lone addition at No. 24, continuing the Cornhuskers' in-and-out ways. They made their first poll appearance of the season at No. 24 on Dec. 3, fell out for a week, re-entered at No. 25, then fell out of last week's poll.