AP College Basketball Poll 2014: Complete Week 3 Rankings Released

Last year, Kentucky's preseason No. 1 ranking was exposed as fraudulent by the season's second week. This time around, it's the Wildcats who are making other teams look like frauds.

John Calipari's team retained its top billing in the latest Associated Press poll, building its resume on the back of five straight muscle-flexing victories. Equally impressive has been Wisconsin, which moves up to tie Arizona at No. 2 after four straight wins of 24 or more points. No. 4 Duke and No. 5 North Carolina round out the Top Five.    

Here is a look at how the remainder played out:

Ranking	Team
1	Kentucky (62)
2	Arizona
2	Wisconsin (3)
4	Duke
5	North Carolina
6	Louisville
7	Texas
8	Virginia
9	Wichita State
10	Gonzaga
11	Kansas
12	Villanova
13	Iowa State
14	Virginia Commonwealth
15	San Diego State
16	Ohio State
17	Miami
18	Florida
19	Michigan
20	Michigan State
21	West Virginia
22	UCLA
23	Creighton
24	UCONN
25	Arkansas

Kentucky's impressive start, which included an 86-28 embarrassment of Montana State on Sunday, was affirmed with its throttling of Kansas on Tuesday. The Wildcats held Bill Self's team to 12 second-half points, forced it to shoot 19.6 percent overall and blocked as many shots as the Jayhawks made (11). The 72-40 domination featured only two double-digit scorers (Dakari Johnson and Andrew Harrison), as no player received more than 21 minutes.

While unconventional, Calipari has found success by subbing his players in and out almost like hockey rotations. Willie Cauley-Stein's 22.4 minutes per game are a team high. Ten Wildcats are averaging at least 16 minutes per game, and an 11th, Dominique Hawkins, is nearly in double figures (9.5).

"But it's starting to develop the roles. The reason I'm not fully defining the roles is they're going to develop," Calipari told reporters after Kentucky's mauling of Montana State, via Steve Jones of The Courier-Journal. "Let's see what these guys truly can do, and then they will flow into roles."

Nicole Auerbach of USA Today weighed in on Calipari's approach:

"

The platoon stuff could certainly change as the season wears on. There could be injuries, egos, or anything in between that might derail this harmonious balance Calipari currently enjoys.

But for now, players have bought in. They speak about trusting their coaches, trusting each other. "If you're winning, it makes it a lot better," Willie Cauley-Stein said. Freshman Karl-Anthony Towns explained that players can go all out in limited time frames.

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Wisconsin, which plays Duke on Dec. 3, arguably looks like the best two-way team in the nation. Frank Kaminsky is averaging 19.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game on 63.3 percent shooting thus far while Nigel Hayes is also around a double-double. The Badgers have averaged 83.7 points per game over their last three contests and are third nationally in offensive efficiency behind Duke and Kentucky, per Ken Pomeroy.

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Those Blue Devils got a leg up on the national scale by winning the 2014 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Duke defeated Temple and Stanford with ease in successive days. Touted freshman Jahlil Okafor is averaging 15.8 points and 8.0 rebounds while senior Quinn Cook has become the clear vocal leader. Cook had 19 points and six assists in the Blue Devils' 81-71 victory over Michigan State in the State Farm Champions Classic. 

"Coach wants me the shoot the ball," Cook, who has moved to shooting guard this season to accommodate freshman floor general Tyus Jones, told reporters, via Rob Dauster of CollegeBasketballTalk. "He knows I'm one of the best shooters on the team. He gets on me when I pass up shots. When I have space, he wants me to shoot."

Duke's defeat of Michigan State was one of a select few losses from Top 25 teams over the last seven days. For the most part, teams around the nation are still getting their sea legs. In college basketball, that means pounding unsuspecting smaller schools that travel from Chapel Hill to Lawrence to Los Angeles to receive program-floating checks in exchange for a massive blowout.

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The best team North Carolina has played so far is Davidson. Arizona's top opponent is probably UC Irvine, but it's much closer to "unidentifiable." Louisville defeated Minnesota to start its season but doesn't have a real test until it plays Ohio State on Dec. 2.

These cupcake games are not necessarily resume-killers. There are more games than in college football and, therefore, more opportunities to make those easy wins seem like a figment of the committee's imagination come March. 

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But these games do create a bit of a lull at the beginning of the schedule and make Top 25 losses all the more surprising. Larry Brown's SMU outfit has gone from No. 22 to basically irrelevant in the span of a week. Gonzaga throttled the Mustangs in Spokane, and three days later, Indiana earned a home win to knock SMU down to 1-2 at the time.

Nebraska's overtime loss to Rhode Island sent the Huskers packing from the national stage. Same goes for Iowa, which dropped two straight against Texas and Syracuse at the 2K Classic. These losses will be utterly indistinguishable when they're happening on a weekly basis during conference play, but they're more magnified early in the season because they are so few and far between.

In all, only four teams with one loss (Kansas, Florida, Michigan State and Connecticut) are ranked inside the Top 25. Kansas and Michigan State each lost to a ranked compatriot. Florida fell by two points to a Miami team that's moved into the rankings this week, and Connecticut shared a similar fate against West Virginia.

As for everyone else, it appears we'll have to wait a few more weeks before they stand a true test. For now, we'll just appreciate the few good scraps of games we get at the Thanksgiving dinner table.   

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.