Men’s basketball AP poll: Kentucky falls flat in brutal loss, Oklahoma keeps surging ahead of SEC play

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Mark Pope and Kentucky struggled to do much of anything in their 20-point loss to Ohio State last week. (AP/Frank Franklin II)

It was a relatively slow week across college basketball, and we’re due for another one with the NBA and NFL dominating Christmas in the coming days. Kentucky, however, blew what was an excellent opportunity to wrap up its nonconference slate in New York.

Here’s everything you missed in Week 7 of the college basketball season, and the latest Associated Press men’s basketball poll.

Ohio State rolls over Kentucky

There are bad losses, and then there is what happened to Kentucky on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

The Wildcats stumbled at the CBS Classic in New York and fell to Ohio State by 20 points in what was their second loss of the season. They shot less than 30% from the field as a group and were held to just 65 points on the night, which was their lowest output of the year. The Buckeyes, on the other hand, shot nearly 57% from the field and scored 36 points in the paint.

It was by far the best the Buckeyes have looked all season, too. They’ve had some bad losses already, including a nearly 40-point loss to Auburn and double-digit losses to Maryland and Texas A&M. Bruce Thornton dropped a career-high 30 points against the Wildcats.

As a result, the Wildcats dropped six spots to No. 10 in this week’s poll. The top three spots in the rankings remained unchanged. Tennessee improved to 11-0 and held the No. 1 ranking again. The Vols were followed by Auburn and Iowa State for another week, too. Duke and Alabama then each slid up a single spot to round out the top five.

Oklahoma made among the biggest jumps in the quiet week, too, after the Sooners improved to 11-0 on the year. They beat Michigan by a single point at the Jumpman Invitational, thanks to a wild four-point play from freshman Jeremiah Fears in the final seconds. While it is the team’s best start since the 2015-16 campaign, the Sooners have beaten just two ranked opponents on the year —…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-23 18:16:00

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