KU, K-State both on the rise in this week’s AP Top 25 basketball poll

The Kansas Jayhawks and Kansas State Wildcats both made notable jumps in this week’s AP Top 25 college basketball poll, with KU reaching No. 2 in the nation and K-State flying up to No. 11 after previously being unranked.

Kansas is in the midst of an eight-game winning streak after cruising past the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday 76-62. The Jayhawks are now 14-1 overall this season and are tied atop the Big 12 standings at 3-0. In another ranking that came out Monday, Andy Katz of ESPN.com has the Jayhawks No. 1 in his weekly Power 36. Next up for KU are back-to-back home games, first on Tuesday night against the Oklahoma Sooners and then on Saturday afternoon against the Iowa State Cyclones, who are up 11 spots to No. 14 in this week’s top 25.

K-State is ranked for the first time this year after a 3-0 start in Big 12 play and scoring 213 points over their last two games, both road wins over the Texas Longhorns last Tuesday and over the Baylor Bears on Saturday. This is the first time the Wildcats have been ranked since the 2018-19 season and it comes after they had received votes each of the previous six weeks. They’ll host the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Tuesday night before a trip to visit the 17th-ranked TCU Horned Frogs this Saturday.

Along with the four aforementioned schools, Texas is also ranked this week, checking in at No. 10. Baylor is the first team out of the poll in the “others receiving votes” category. One future Big 12 team made the top 25 this week and that’s the Houston Cougars, the No. 1 team in the country.

Not only are five Big 12 programs in the AP poll this week (and six in the top 26), but all 10 are ranked in the top 41 in the country by Kenpom. Houston and another future Big 12 member, UCF, are both in the top 40, too.

For this week’s full AP top 25 college basketball poll, click here.