Kansas, Villanova, UCLA and Gonzaga held onto the top four spots in The Associated Press college basketball poll.
The Jayhawks (28-3) are No. 1 for the second week in a row. They received 59 first-place votes Monday from the 65-member national media panel.
Villanova (28-3) was No. 1 on two ballots while UCLA (28-3) got three first-place votes. Gonzaga (30-1) received the other first-place vote.
Oregon and North Carolina exchanged places at fifth and sixth while Arizona stayed seventh.
Kentucky moved up one place to eighth and was followed by Baylor and Louisville.
West Virginia was 11th followed by SMU, Purdue, Duke, Cincinnati, Florida State, Florida, Butler, Saint Mary’s and Wichita State.
The last five ranked teams were Virginia, Notre Dame, Iowa State, Wisconsin and Maryland.
Maryland (24-7) returns after being out of the poll for one week. The Terrapins replace Miami (20-10), which lost to Virginia Tech and Florida State in the Hurricanes’ first appearance in the poll this season.
The season’s final poll will be released March 13.
Even with the loss of Miami, the Atlantic Coast Conference still leads with six ranked teams. The Big 12 is next with four, followed by the Pac-12 and Big Ten with three each.
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