Kansas junior Ioanna Chatzileonti falls into the bench against Wichita State. Kansas won 72-52 on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022.

The Kansas women’s basketball team ended a nearly-10-year drought by breaking into the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday, at No. 22 overall.

The Jayhawks, who topped Wichita State 72-52 at home on Sunday to move to 9-0 on the season, cracked this week’s Top 25 largely behind the strength of their 77-50 road win at No. 12 Arizona last week. The Wildcats (7-1) dropped eight spots to No. 20.

Entering Monday, Kansas was one of just 12 women’s Division I teams that was still unbeaten and the only program in the Big 12 Conference still undefeated.

The last time the Jayhawks were ranked came 3,984 days ago, on Jan. 14, 2013, when Bonnie Henrickson was still the coach. The Jayhawks were No. 23 in that poll and they spent nine weeks ranked during the 2012-13 season, which ended with a Sweet 16 loss to top-seeded Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament.

The Jayhawks were a No. 12 seed that year and advanced to the third round with upset wins over Colorado and South Carolina in Rounds 1 and 2.

This Kansas team is full of players who played a huge role in getting Kansas back to the NCAA Tournament a year ago for the first time since that 2013 run, and that taste has fueled their hot start to the 2022-23 season.

“We’ve talked a lot about being a program on the rise, and we feel like the trajectory of our program is headed in a positive direction,” KU coach Brandon Schneider said in a statement on Monday after the poll was released. “I think earning a spot in the AP Poll for the first time since 2013 is the latest indication of that.”

Also on Monday, the Jayhawks were named ESPN’s Team of the Week.

While the Kansas offense — 76.5 points per game — has been pretty explosive, the Jayhawks’ defense has carried them, as well. KU is giving up just 53 points per game to opponents while holding its foes to 32.7% shooting from the floor and 25.7% shooting from 3-point range so far this season.

Behind center Taiyanna Jackson’s double-double average, the Jayhawks are out-rebounding their opponents by an average of 10 boards per game and also have recorded nearly twice as many total blocks (47-24) through the season’s first nine games.

Schneider said Monday that the attention and success his team has received and enjoyed thus far has been welcomed. But the Jayhawks are far from satisfied.

“We feel good about it, in terms of the program validation,” Schneider said. “But we’re in the nonconference portion of our schedule and we have a lot of goals still in front of us.”

KU will close out its nonconference slate in the next two weeks, with a Friday home game against Tulsa — 7 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse on ESPN+ — and a road trip to Nebraska next Wednesday.

KU is slated to open Big 12 play at Oklahoma State on Dec. 31.