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With the Duke Blue Devils receiving all of the first place votes, the release of this week’s AP Poll is about where the other 24 teams were ranked. After winning notable contests against Cincinnati and Baylor, the Xavier Musketeers jumped from 21st to 13th in the AP Poll. While the Musketeers have been fantastic as a shooting team, their defense has looked much more formidable recently against legitimate opposition. Despite an impressive win over Notre Dame last week, the one loss Spartans stayed put as the third-ranked team in the country behind an undefeated albeit relatively untested Kansas Jayhawks program.
Top 25 College Basketball Rankings 2017: Week 5
The program that dropped the farthest in the rankings were the USC Trojans (14th to 25th). After their offense looked inept in losses to Texas A&M and SMU, the once exciting Trojans have lost their mojo as an efficient and confident scoring team. The team to keep a close on as the subsequent rankings are released are the Texas A&M Aggies. Moving up two spots from 9th to 7th, the Aggies have used their physical size to their advantage on both offense and defense against two ranked opponents in West Virginia and USC.
| Ranking | Team (1st place votes) |
| 1 | Duke (65) |
| 2 | Kansas |
| 3 | Michigan State |
| 4 | Villanova |
| 5 | Florida |
| 6 | Wichita State |
| 7 | Texas A&M |
| 8 | Kentucky |
| 9 | Notre Dame |
| 10 | Miami |
| 11 | North Carolina |
| 12 | Gonzaga |
| 13 | Xavier |
| 14 | Minnesota |
| 15 | Virginia |
| 16 | Arizona State |
| 17 | Cincinnati |
| 18 | West Virginia |
| 19 | Seton Hall |
| 20 | TCU |
| 21 | Purdue |
| 22 | Nevada |
| 23 | Baylor |
| 23 | Tennessee |
| 25 | USC |
With the Blue Devils remaining number one in the AP Poll, this week is all about the Xavier Musketeers who took their competitiveness to the next level on both offense and defense. With a relatively easy non-conference schedule remaining, the Musketeers should be in a great position in the rankings once conference play starts in a few weeks.
Dropped from rankings: Louisville 17, Texas Tech 22, Alabama 24, Creighton 25
Others receiving votes that did not make the poll: Texas Tech 82, UCLA 75, Rhode Island 73, Creighton 53, Louisville 50, Texas 32, Alabama 21, SMU 15, Mississippi State 11, Kansas State 10, Arizona 10, Georgia 9, Washington State 9, Oklahoma 7, Providence 6, Florida State 6, Clemson 5, Valparaiso 5, Georgetown 4, Oklahoma State 3, UT Arlington 3, Western Kentucky 2, Towson 1
