Top 25 after Week 13

Villanova’s loss was the lone setback among teams in last week’s top five and since it was the Wildcats’ second loss of the season, Jay Wright’s team didn’t fall much.

Kansas sticks at No. 1 after wins against Colorado and Nebraska, while Syracuse remains at No. 2 following victories over Providence and at Cincinnati.

Villanova slides down one spot to No. 4 as another Wildcats team, Kentucky, moves up to No. 3.

There’s not much separation in the next group.

We’ll give the nod to Purdue, which remains at No. 5 and appears to be back on track.

West Virginia, following wins against Pittsburgh and St. John’s, moved up one spot to sixth, and Duke, which had a strong week with a home win against Georgia Tech and a road victory at Boston College, climbs four spots to seventh.

Georgetown remains at No. 8 despite a loss to South Florida, Kansas State is up one spot to ninth overall and Wisconsin cracks the Top 10 for the first time this season after a sweep of the Michigan schools.

The team that made the most significant move was Butler, which gained five spots while continuing to dominate the Horizon League. Brad Stevens’ club is all the way up to No. 20 after a slow start to the season.

Michigan State, Texas and Vanderbilt all fell from a week ago.

The Spartans lost at Wisconsin and while playing without standout point guard Kalin Lucas, dropped one on the road to Illinois. Tom Izzo’s team went from No. 6 to No. 12 after a rough week.

The Longhorns slid four spots down to 13th after a road loss to a struggling Oklahoma team. It wasn’t all that long ago that Texas held down the No. 1 spot, but Rick Barnes & Co. have lost four of its last six overall.

Vanderbilt beat Mississippi State to begin the week, but the Commodores followed with a road setback at Georgia. Kevin Stallings team went from 16th to 23rd.

Three teams departed from the Top 25: No. 18 BYU, which lost at UNLV; No. 20 Florida State, which dropped one to Maryland; and No. 24 Ole Miss, which lost at Kentucky and just doesn’t have enough quality wins.

Wake Forest and Texas A&M both made return engagements to the poll. The Demon Deacons swept games at home to Miami and on the road against Virginia while A&M snapped Missouri’s long home winning streak and then followed it up with a victory against Baylor in College Station.

We’re giving Cornell the nod for the 25th spot in the poll after the Big Red played Kansas tough and have dominated the Ivy League thus far.

WEEK 13 TOP 25

1. Kansas (22-1) *1
2. Syracuse (23-1) *2
3. Kentucky (22-1) *4
4. Villanova (20-2) *3
5. Purdue (19-3) *5
6. West Virginia (19-3) *7
7. Duke (19-4) *11
8. Georgetown (17-5) *8
9. Kansas State (19-4) *10
10. Wisconsin (18-5) *13
11. Ohio State (18-6) *12
12. Michigan State (19-5) *6
13. Texas (19-4) *9
14. Temple (19-5) *14
15. New Mexico (21-3) *15
16. Tennessee (18-4) *17
17. Georgia Tech (17-6) *21
18. Gonzaga (19-4) *22
19. Pittsburgh (17-6) *19
20. Butler (20-4) *25
21. Wake Forest (16-5) *NR
22. Texas A&M (17-6) * NR
23. Vanderbilt (17-5) *16
24. Baylor (17-5) *23
25. Cornell (20-3) * NR

Dropped out: No. 18 BYU, No. 20 Florida State, No. 24 Mississippi.