Duke No. 1 in first regular-season poll

By foxsports
Published

The first poll of college basketball's regular season looks a lot like the preseason Top 25.

Duke was again a runaway No. 1 on Monday, receiving 58 first-place votes, three more than it had in The Associated Press' preseason rankings.

The Blue Devils, the defending national champions, opened the season Sunday with a 37-point win over Princeton.

The same teams were in the poll, with eight schools switching places. The 25 teams were a combined 31-0 in the first week of play, with Missouri the only one without at least one win.

There should be plenty of movement in next week's poll. At least three games between ranked teams are scheduled this week.

Michigan State, which received the other seven first-place votes, remained second followed by Kansas State, Ohio State and Pittsburgh. Villanova was sixth with Kansas, North Carolina, Florida and Syracuse rounding out the top 10.

The first of the four switches was Gonzaga and Kentucky, which are 11th and 12th this week. Illinois was 13th followed by Purdue, Missouri, Butler, Baylor Washington, Memphis and Georgetown. The last five ranked teams were Temple, Virginia Tech, BYU, Tennessee and San Diego State.

The other switches were Butler and Baylor, Temple and Virginia Tech and BYU and Tennessee.

The Volunteers opened the season with an 82-62 win over Chattanooga, but that followed a 79-64 loss to Division II Indianapolis in an exhibition game.

Last season, Syracuse lost an exhibition game to Division II LeMoyne. It certainly didn't derail the Orange once the regular season started. They won their first 13 games and reached No. 1 for a week in February, their first time on top in 20 years.

There are three double-ranked games set for Tuesday: Ohio State at Florida, Virginia Tech at Kansas State and San Diego State at Gonzaga. All three are regularly scheduled games and not tournament matchups.

The fourth possible game between ranked teams would be Friday in either the championship or third-place game in the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer. Pittsburgh faces Maryland in one semifinal at Madison Square Garden on Thursday while Illinois plays Texas in the other.