photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas guard Malik Newman (14) tries to drive against Oklahoma guard Trae Young (11) during the second half at Lloyd Noble Center on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma.

A mid-week loss to Oklahoma, which remained at No. 12 in this week’s poll, dropped the Kansas men’s basketball two spots to No. 7 in the latest Associated Press Top 25.

Kansas, which leads the Big 12 by one game over four teams tied for second, checks in as the highest ranked team in the nation’s No. 1-ranked conference, with Texas Tech (No. 10), Oklahoma (12) and West Virginia (15) all ranked in the Top 15.

Kansas State, which has won four straight and crawled into the Big 12 title race since losing by a single point in Lawrence earlier this month, is not ranked in this week’s Top 25 but could take a big step toward jumping into next week’s poll with a win over KU in front of a charged-up environment in Manhattan tonight.

The top four in this week’s poll remained the same — Villanova, Virginia, Purdue and Duke — while Michigan State and Xavier both jumped Kansas.

The Jayhawks extended their nation’s best streak of consecutive weeks ranked in the AP Top 25 to 174 weeks (Villanova is second in active streaks at 86 weeks) and will look to begin the climb back up starting tonight against K-State.

Despite falling two spots in the AP Poll, the Jayhawks actually made a move up in ESPN.com’s latest Bracketology from Joe Lunardi. Lunardi now has KU as a No. 1 seed in the West region. Just four days ago, the Jayhawks were a No. 2 seed in the Midwest, according to Lunardi.

Here’s a quick look at this week’s AP Top 25:

1 – Villanova (47), 20-1

2 – Virginia (17), 20-1

3 – Purdue (1), 21-2

4 – Duke, 18-3

5 – Michigan State, 20-3

6 – Xavier, 19-3

7 – Kansas, 17-4

8 – Cincinnati, 19-2

9 – Arizona, 18-4

10 – Texas Tech, 17-4

11 – Auburn, 19-2

12 – Oklahoma, 15-5

13 – Saint Mary’s, 21-2

14 – Gonzaga, 19-4

15 – West Virginia, 16-5

16 – Wichita State, 17-4

17 – Ohio State, 18-5

18 – Tennessee, 15-5

19 – North Carolina, 16-6

20 – Clemson, 17-4

21 – Kentucky, 16-5

22 – Rhode Island, 17-3

23 – Florida, 15-6

24 – Michigan, 17-6

25 – Arizona State, 16-5