The outcome of Sunday’s basketball game played in Allen Feildhouse dropped Kansas from 16th to 18th in the Associated Press college basketball poll and lifted San Diego State from 21st to 13th.
Nobody who objectively watched San Diego State’s 61-57 victory against the Jayhawks could argue that the Aztecs don’t deserve to be ranked higher than KU at this point in the season.

The top 25 teams in the AP poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Jan. 5, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:

Record Pts Prv

1. Arizona (60) 15-0 1,620 1
2. Syracuse (5) 14-0 1,550 2
3. Ohio St. 15-0 1,470 3
4. Wisconsin 15-0 1,427 4
5. Michigan St. 13-1 1,378 5
6. Wichita St. 15-0 1,203 8
7. Baylor 12-1 1,169 9
8. Villanova 13-1 1,141 11
9. Iowa St. 13-0 1,076 13
10. Florida 11-2 1,052 12
11. Oklahoma St. 12-2 934 6
12. Louisville 13-2 825 14
13. San Diego St. 12-1 823 21
14. Kentucky 10-3 808 15
15. Colorado 13-2 752 20
16. Duke 11-3 745 7
17. Oregon 13-1 715 10
18. Kansas 9-4 367 16
19. UMass 12-1 364 23
20. Iowa 12-3 261 22
21. Missouri 12-1 247 25
22. Gonzaga 14-2 241 24
23. Illinois 13-2 178 NR
24. Memphis 10-3 126 18
25. Kansas St. 11-3 112 NR

Others receiving votes: Cincinnati 103, Creighton 82, North Carolina 79, UCLA 79, Pittsburgh 44, Harvard 41, UConn 41, Saint Louis 19, Oklahoma 15, Michigan 11, George Washington 9, SMU 9, Notre Dame 3, Xavier 3, Toledo 2, Arkansas 1.

My AP ballot:

1. Arizona: Washington State has no quarrel with No. 1 ranking for ‘Cats. Playing without two injured starters, the Cougars scored their fewest points since 1938, a year before Bill Snyder was born. Arizona stormed to a 21-2 lead and was ahead 28-7 at the half. Ex-Jayhawk Royce Woolridge (averaging 10.4 points) scored with 6:42 left in first half to improve Cougars to 1 of 17 from field.
Afterward, Woolridge uttered the understatement of this young century when he said, “It’s hard to score on them.”

2. Syracuse: Half of 14 opponents have scored 60 or fewer points, including four who have scored 50 or fewer against Syracuse’s 2-3 zone.

3. Ohio State: Bench scored 38 points in blowout victory against Nebraska, which always has been to college basketball what Kansas has been to college football. Buckeyes’ heavy reliance on bench not unusual this season. Nine players average double-figures minutes and just LaQuinton Ross (13.6 points) and Lenzelle Smith (12.7) score in double figures.

4. Michigan State: Tuesday’s home game against Ohio State at 8 p.m. on ESPN, a must-watch potential thriller.

5. Wisconsin: Bo Ryan, a great basketball coach, not a good one, kept his cool and that was the difference in comeback victory against Iowa.

6. Wichita State: Nothing this team does should Shock anybody anymore. Shockers keep opponents off offensive glass, don’t turn it over, play aggressive defense without fouling and take good shots. In other words, they don’t do anything to beat themselves.

7. Florida: Coach Billy Donovan one of four active coaches to win multiple national titles, joining Mike Krzyzewski (four with Duke), Rick Pitino (one with Kentucky, one with Louisville) and Roy Williams (two with North Carolina).

8. San Diego State: Josh Davis, fifth-year senior who played a year at North Carolina State and two at Tulane, is to college basketball what Dennis Rodman was to the NBA, a great rebounder and a good defender who doesn’t put a priority on scoring. Biggest difference: Davis does not project as somebody who ever will want to hang out with a mad dictator who executed his uncle by feeding him to 120 starving dogs. Does Rodman ever stop to think that if he utters one wrong word to Kim Jong Un he could be fed to hungry dogs as well?

9. Villanova: JayVaughn Pinkston, so active around the bucket, is tough to stop (.586 two-point pct.), unless he stops himself by shooting threes (.208).

10. Baylor: Three-point marksman Brady Heslip has two turnovers in 287 minutes and is shooting .479 from three.

11. Oklahoma State: Seventh on team in minutes per game, Michael Cobbins led Cowboys in blocked shots and played a physical style that made him a presence. He’s out for season with torn Achilles. Tough loss.

12. Iowa State: Cyclones average just 9.6 turnovers, a stunning figure for a team that scores 87 points a game. They also make 57.4 percent of two-point field goals, an indication they get great shots.

13. Colorado: Askia Booker, the junior guard who made long three-pointers at the end of each half against Kansas, led Buffs with 27 points in dealing Oregon its first loss, 100-91. Booker knows how to finish. Eleven of his points came in the final 4:40.

14. Oregon: Ducks improved to 3-0 in overtime with victory at Utah, but couldn’t get closer than five points in the waning moments in loss at Colorado.

15. Kentucky: Young college basketball players always think they are better three-point shooters than they really are and they shoot too many of them, so it’s no surprise that the youngest team in America has a low three-point percentage (.310), but Wildcats compensate by ranking first in the nation in offensive rebounding.

16. Louisville: Chane Behanan, dismissed from the team for violation of university policy, told ESPN.com he planned to head to Houston to work with former Maryland and NBA guard John Lucas, who runs a drug and alcohol treatment program for coaches and athletes. Here’s wishing Behanan, a terrific basketball player, success, one day at a time.

17. North Carolina: Opened ACC play with loss at Wake Forest, dad-gummit.

18. Kansas: Statsheet.com tracks plus-minus figures for college basketball players. KU’s: Andrew Wiggins (11.2), Joel Embiid (9.5), Perry Ellis (7.1), Frank Mason (6.0), Conner Frankamp (6.0), Wayne Selden (5.7), Tarik Black (5.3), Naadir Tharpe (4.9), Andrew White (1.1), Jamari Traylor (1.1), Brannen Greene (0), Landen Lucas (Negative-4.0).

19. Duke: Jabari Parker finally had a bad game. The freshman sensation made 2 of 10 shots and scored seven points in loss at Notre Dame. Irish zone led to a 20-4 run, showing Blue Devils need some work there.

20. Iowa: Hot-head coach Fran McCaffrey’s temper tantrum that drew him an ejection and gave Wisconsin four free throws, all makes, was the difference in this one. He lost his mind to the extent he had to be restrained by an assistant.

21. Cincinnati: A 16-point victory at Memphis vaults Bearcats, on six-game winning streak since losing by 17 to cross-town rival Xavier on Dec. 14, into rankings.

22. Illinois: We’ll find out if I have Illini overrated based on how they perform Wednesday night in Madison against undefeated Badgers.

23. Massachusetts: Derek Kellog played point guard for the Minutemen during the glory years under John Calipari. Kellog also was an assistant to Calipari for eight seasons at Memphis. Clearly, he paid attention. In his sixth season at UMass, Kellog’s teams steadily have improved, as evidenced by victory totals: 12, 12, 15, 20, 20. Taking leap to 30 this season isn’t out of the question.

24. Pittsburgh: Panthers opened ACC play with 12-point victory at North Carolina State. Lone loss in soft nonconference schedule came by one point against Cincinnati.

25. Creighton: Duke’s Parker is making a strong case, but nobody in better position to win national player of the year honors than Doug McDermott, who originally signed with Northern Iowa because his father, Greg McDermott, then coaching at Iowa State, didn’t think his son was good enough to play in the Big 12. His father moved to Creighton, then of the Missouri Valley Conference, and Doug followed him. Now the son won’t be satisfied to just win Big East player of the year honors. Greg McDermott is unlike 99 percent of fathers in that they think their sons are way better athletes than they actually are and he underrated his.