After winning both of their games last week in an attempt to bounce back from the loss to their Tobacco Road rivals, Jon Scheyer’s Duke Blue Devils remained at No. 9 in the latest AP Poll released Monday afternoon.
Duke dispatched Notre Dame at home 71-53 to complete a season sweep of the Fighting Irish. They followed up with an 80-65 home win over a Boston College team led by All-ACC big man Quinten Post.
As the calendar inches closer and closer to March, Duke is trying to round itself into form and begin playing their best basketball at the right time.
At the top of the AP Poll, Connecticut and Purdue serve as the two best teams in the nation, respectively. UNC‘s home loss to Clemson for just the second time ever cost them their spot at No. 3. That now goes to the Houston Cougars, who moved up since Kansas lost against their in-state rivals, the Kansas State Wildcats on the road.
Marquette and Arizona are your fourth- and fifth-ranked teams as both saw themselves rise three spots from last week’s poll.
Kansas is now sixth, while Hubert Davis’ team is now seventh. All-American candidate Dalton Knecht and the Tennessee Volunteers are now eight after Texas A&M drilled them on Saturday evening.
T. J. Otzelberger and the Iowa State Cyclones round out the top 10, giving the Big 12 three schools in the top 10.
Tony Bennett and the Virginia Cavaliers join the Blue Devils and Tarheels as the only ACC teams represented in the top 25.
Duke, Virginia, and UNC are in a tense battle for ACC supremacy, with the Tar Heels holding onto a one-game lead over UVA and a 1.5-game lead over Duke. UVA and UNC are set to play each other toward the end of February, while Duke is set to host both Virginia and UNC in March as their final two home games to close out this ACC regular season.