Kentucky ascends to No. 1; Duke drops to sixth

Kentucky has moved into the No. 1 spot in The Associated Press men's basketball Top 25, replacing Duke, which dropped to sixth following its narrow defeat to Kansas in the Champions Classic.

The Wildcats (4-0), who beat then-No. 13 Michigan State in the Champions Classic, received 42 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel in the poll released Monday. Kentucky was ranked No. 1 for two weeks last season and has been the top-ranked team for 34 weeks under John Calipari, who started coaching the Wildcats in 2009-10.

Defending national champion Villanova (5-0) moved up one spot to second. The Wildcats received 21 No. 1 votes following a four-win week that included a victory over then-No. 15 Purdue.

Indiana (3-0), which moved up three places to third, received the other two first-place votes. This is the Hoosiers' highest ranking since they were third in the next-to-last poll of 2012-13.

North Carolina moved up one place to fourth and was followed by Kansas, Duke, Virginia, Arizona, Xavier and Louisville.

Gonzaga jumped three spots to 11th and was followed by Creighton and Oregon, which fell from No. 4 to 13th after losing to Baylor.

UCLA was No. 14, followed by Saint Mary's, Wisconsin, Purdue, Syracuse, West Virginia and newcomer Baylor.

The last six are Iowa State, Texas, Rhode Island, Michigan State, Michigan and Florida State. The Wolverines and Seminoles, the week's other newcomers, tied for 25th.

Baylor (3-0), Michigan (4-0) and Florida State (4-0) replace Cincinnati and California, which were 24th and 25th last week, respectively. The Bearcats and Golden Bears were both ranked for one week.

The ACC leads with six ranked teams, while the Big Ten and Big 12 have five each.

ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.