photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas forward Perry Ellis (34) turns for a shot over Oklahoma State forward Jeffrey Carroll during the second half on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015 at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Kansas held its No. 8 spot in the Associated Press college basketball poll, released today.

The top 25 teams in the AP college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 15, 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. Kentucky (65) 25-0 1,625 1
2. Virginia 23-1 1,524 2
3. Gonzaga 26-1 1,475 3
4. Duke 22-3 1,449 4
5. Wisconsin 23-2 1,387 5
6. Villanova 23-2 1,302 6
7. Arizona 22-3 1,213 7
8. Kansas 21-4 1,195 8
9. Utah 20-4 1,051 11
10. Notre Dame 22-4 1,038 10
11. N. Iowa 24-2 955 13
12. Louisville 20-5 882 9
13. Wichita St. 23-3 862 15
14. Iowa St. 18-6 761 14
15. North Carolina 18-7 658 12
16. Maryland 21-5 640 19
17. Oklahoma 17-8 554 17
18. Arkansas 20-5 476 24
19. Butler 18-7 456 18
20. Baylor 18-7 364 16
21. SMU 21-5 299 25
22. Oklahoma St. 17-8 240 21
23. West Virginia 19-6 154 21
24. Ohio St. 19-7 139 23
25. VCU 19-6 109 20

Others receiving votes: Texas 70, San Diego St. 64, Providence 44, Murray St. 38, Temple 28, Georgetown 23, Michigan St. 17, Dayton 10, Texas A&M 8, Valparaiso 8, Indiana 7.

My AP top 25 ballot:

1 – Kentucky: Again the nation’s best team, except for most NBA squads, escaped another close one on the road, 71-69, in Baton Rouge. LSU went on a 21-2 run after Karl-Anthony Towns received a technical foul for hanging on the rim. Calipari lit up Towns, benched him and watched his team fall behind 66-60 without callinga timeout.
“I’m not worried about losing,” Calipari said afterward. “This is about us getting better.”
Upset with his team’s play, Calipari said after the game that he told his team, “I hope we lose,” after Towns hung on the rim.
Never a dull moment with Calipari and his undefeated Wildcats.

2 – Virginia: On the one hand, a broken finger that will sideline Justin Anderson until some point in March could cost him a shot at the Wooden Award. On the other hand, seeing how much worse Virginia is without him could help him win the award. Without Anderson, the Cavs have shot a wretched 6 for 37 from three-point range, haven’t defended as well and have struggled to go 3-0.

3 – Gonzaga: Domantas Sabonis, the 6-foot-10, 231 pound freshman from Lithuania, averages 9.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and shoots national-best .707 from the field for the most talented Zags team ever.

4 – Duke: Blue Devils survived two tough road games (Florida State and Syracuse). When road challenges pop up, look for seniors to lead the way. Coach K didn’t see any reason to rest Quinn Cook in either game and in 80 minutes, Cook scored 43 points and made 13 of 15 free throws. Great freshman class, but it’s Cook who holds this team together.

5 – Wisconsin: Badgers pulling away from Big Ten field even faster than Kansas is from Big 12 competitors. Badgers 11-1 with a three-game lead.

6 – Villanova: When Villanova defeated Kansas, 63-59, in the Bahamas, the outcome was painted as a stunner. But the reality is ‘Nova has been a better team than Kansas the past two seasons, posting a 52-7 record. Kansas has played a tougher schedule, but also has lost twice as many games.

7 – Kansas: Perry Ellis averaging 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds in past five games. “I’ve coached him for three years and I’ve said he leaves me wanting more, but I haven’t thought that of late,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I think he’s playing closer to his ceiling now than he has.”

8 – Arizona: Size doesn’t always translate to rebounding, but it certainly does with Arizona. Point guard T.J. McConnell is joined in the starting lineup by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (6-7, 220), Stanley Johnson (6-7, 245), Brandon Ashley (6-9, 230) and Kaleb Tarczewski (7-0, 245). Opponents rebound 22.4 percent of their misses, per kenpom.com, which makes Wildcats the best defensive rebounding team in nation.

9 – Louisville: North Carolina State’s Anthony “Cat” Barber, recruited for a while by Kansas, has reached 20 points in three of last four games and scored 21 points to lead 74-65 upset at Louisville. Afterward, he spoke in the third person: “Coaches keep telling me, ‘Be me. Be Cat and do what Cat does best.’ I think I’ve taken that under consideration.” As a child, I had a cat that killed a cardinal. It was very sad and ranks in the top 25 reasons I like dogs better than cats.

10 – Notre Dame: On Tuesday, Irish play host to Danny Manning’s Wake Forest squad, which is coming off one-point loss at Virginia in a game that could come to be known as the Valentine’s Day non-massacre.

11 – Utah: Utes so upset about losing at UCLA that they have won the next four games by margins of 15 points or greater. They hit the road this week for a pair of games vs. the Oregon schools.

12 – North Carolina: Tar Heels head into Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday having lost three of past four games. In Saturday’s game at Pittsburgh, the Panthers shot 65 percent, the highest mark against the Tar Heels since Williams went back to his alma mater.

13 – Iowa State: Cyclones, 1-4 on the road in Big 12 play, head to Stillwater and Austin this week.

14 – Northern Iowa: Panthers riding 13-game winning streak. Freshman reserve guard Wyatt Lohaus is nine inches shorter than his father, Brad Lohaus (University of Iowa, eight NBA teams in 11 seasons), but did inherit Brad’s shooting touch. The younger Lohaus is shooting .464 from three and .889 from the line and plays 14.1 minutes per game.

15 – Oklahoma: If not for getting swept by Kansas State, Sooners would stand one-half game behind first-place Kansas. Sweeping Oklahoma was the stately thing for K-State to do.

16 – Wichita State: Shockers aren’t as talented as last season, but play with every bit as much defensive grit, limiting opponents to 55.8 points a game, eighth in nation.

17 – Butler: Bulldogs fell just short, 68-65, of adding Villanova to list of victims that already includes North Carolina, Georgetown, St. John’s twice, Xavier and Seton Hall twice.

18 – Maryland: Senior Dez Wells doesn’t shoot a ton of threes (two per game), but makes 52.6 percent of his attempts. .

19 – Michigan State: Slowly the Spartans have turned, step by step, inch by inch, on the way to playing their best basketball in the NCAA tournament. Maybe. Four of final six games on the road.

20 – Ohio State: Sharp-shooter Marc Loving played just five minutes in three-point loss at Michigan State in first game back from three-game suspension. Bench scored three points.

21 – Oklahoma State: Cowboys were on mighty three-game roll, winning at Texas, then at home vs. Kansas, then at Baylor. And then they lost by 15 points at TCU? Cowboys made 3 of 16 threes (.188) and turned it over 17 times. Maybe it was particularly windy in the Horned Frogs’ temporary home.

22 – Baylor: The fact that Baylor, an athletic team that plays so hard, is .500 in Big 12 play and tied for sixth is as good a testament to conference’s strength as any other evidence.

23 – Arkansas: Sophomore post player Bobby Portis had a stretch of nine game in which he produced a double-double eight times.

24 – Virginia Commonwealth: After losing three in four-game stretch, Rams bounced back nicely with 13-point victory at George Washington.

25 – SMU: Gifted point guard Eammanuel Mudiay suffered a season-ending ankle injury after 10 games in China. If he had played at SMU and stayed healthy, no telling how much higher Larry Brown’s team would be ranked.