KU men’s basketball moves up to 10th place in AP poll

Tuesday’s Big 12 home opener for the Kansas men’s basketball program — 8 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse — all of a sudden, is a clash between Top 20 teams.

That’s because Texas Tech, on the heels of its blowout victory over Baylor last weekend, jumped four spots in this week’s AP poll, from No. 22 to No. 18.

The Jayhawks, which got their Big 12 title defense off to a good start with a road win over Texas last Friday, also moved up in the latest AP poll, from No. 11 a week ago to No. 10 this week.

Kansas (11-2) and Texas Tech (12-1) are far from the only Big 12 teams in this week’s Top 25. In fact, they’re not even the two highest.

West Virginia (12-1) moved up a spot from No. 7 to No. 6 and Oklahoma, which is off to an amazing start behind the stellar play of player of the year candidate Trae Young, jumped up five spots from No. 12 to No. 7.

TCU checks in as the No. 16 team in the country — down from No. 10 last week after a loss to Oklahoma — and Baylor, which had been in the Top 25, dropped out and into 26th place, one of two Big 12 teams (BU and Texas) also receiving votes.