Winners and Losers from the AP College Basketball Top 25 Rankings in Week 3

Though the first three days of the 2014-15 college basketball season were relatively uneventful, the past seven were rife with big games and shocking upsets, leading to some clear winners and losers in the Associated Press Top 25 rankings for Week 3.

After dismantling Kansas in the Champions Classic and beating Montana State so badly that its head coach said after the game, "You feel helpless because you don't know what to attack," Kentucky remains the No. 1 team in the country. The Wildcats received 62 out of 65 first-place votes this week, up from 49 of 64 in Week 2.

Wisconsin received the other three first-place votes, but the real action was at the other end of the poll.

Of the nine teams that were ranked No. 17-25 last Monday, seven suffered at least one loss. As a result, there was a ton of shakeup in the bottom third of the poll.

If you thought there was a lot of movement in this week's poll, just wait until next week after 15 more early-season tournaments have been played. If nothing else, we know either North Carolina or Wisconsin (or both?) will suffer at least one loss in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though, because there are plenty of winners and losers from this week's AP poll to discuss.

Winner: Miami (FL) Hurricanes

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Did any team have a better week than Miami?

First, the Hurricanes traveled upstate to pick up a shocking road win over the Gators. Angel Rodriguez was NBA Jam on fire over the final 10 minutes of that come-from-behind victory, leading all scorers with 24 points.

Then, they competed in the Charleston Classic and beat all three of their opponents by at least 19 points each. Drexel, Akron and Charlotte might not be in the running for an at-large bid this season, but Miami wasn't exactly playing No Name State and the Sisters of the Poor in those games, either.

The win over Florida caught our attention, but those three convincing wins in a span of four days really entrapped our gaze.

Miami didn't receive a single vote in last week's poll, but the Hurricanes picked up 524 votes this week, making their AP debut at No. 17.

Loser: Florida Gators

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For the second consecutive year, a short-handed Florida team got out to a slow start after opening the season ranked in the Top 10.

In 2013-14, the Gators opened the year without Scottie Wilbekin or Dorian Finney-Smith. They nearly lost their first game of the season to North Florida before losing their second game at No. 20 Wisconsin.

They once again lost their second game of the season, only this time it was at home to an unranked Miami. And they built on the loss to Miami by needing overtime to win a home game against Louisiana-Monroe.

The Gators dropped 10 spots to No. 18, but is it really fair to judge them yet?

Chris Walker just made his (unimpressive) season debut Friday. Finney-Smith has missed the past two games with a hairline fracture in his non-shooting hand. Eli Carter—who surprised most of us by scoring 29 points in the first two games—missed Florida's last game with a foot injury that might be pretty serious.

In their absence, though, Chris Chiozza proved to be a capable backup in the frontcourt, Jacob Kurtz emerged as a rebounding machine and Jon Horford showed off his new-found three-point stroke.

We spent the entire 2013-14 season saying that Michigan State would be very good once/if it was fully healthy. It might be about time to start recycling that thought process with Florida.

Winner: Kansas Jayhawks

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While Florida dropped 10 spots to No. 18 for suffering a two-point loss to the now-respected Miami Hurricanes, Kansas slipped just six spots to No. 11 for losing by 32 points in the only game it played this week.

That blowout loss to Kentucky in the Champions Classic had everyone buzzing—but it was more infatuation with Kentucky than it was disappointment in Kansas.

The loss itself wasn't surprising in the least. Kentucky was already regarded as the best team in the country, and Kansas is a young team with some kinks to work out.

However, the hopeless manner in which the Jayhawks lost wasn't even remotely indicative of a ranked team. They did a fine job of avoiding turnovers and battling for rebounds, but that fundamental part of basketball where you put the ball in the hoop was a foreign concept to them.

Anyone can have an awful shooting night—especially against Kentucky's gigantic enforcers in the paint—but Kansas is a winner because 10 straight years of Big 12 dominance resulted in some benefit of the doubt for the time being.

Loser: Connecticut Huskies

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Until Sunday night, Connecticut was to college basketball what Florida State is to college football—minus all the off-the-field distractions that make most of the country loathe the Seminoles.

The reigning champs repeatedly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

The Huskies trailed at the half against Bryant in the season opener before Ryan Boatright donned his superhero cape and steered them to victory. After opening up an eight-point lead over College of Charleston less than four minutes into the game, they never slammed the door and repeatedly allowed the Cougars to close within two possessions in the second half.

In the Puerto Rico semifinals, Connecticut was tied with Dayton at the half and trailed by three with 10 minutes to go when Amida Brimah did his best Manute Bol impression and started blocking everything Dayton tried to do in the paint.

The magic ran out against West Virginia, though, as the Huskies trailed by 15 at the half and never got it closer than six points in the second period.

It hasn't all been doom and gloom. Daniel Hamilton is off to a very good start in his freshman campaign, and Kentan Facey has emerged as a pretty solid complement to Brimah in the post.

However, this is a shallow team that needs a Herculean effort from Boatright on a nightly basis. Don't be surprised if the Huskies are fighting tooth and nail in just about every game they play this season.

For losing on Sunday night, Connecticut tumbled from No. 17 to No. 24.

Winner: West Virginia Mountaineers

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It's funny how much difference a couple of days can make.

At halftime of their semifinal game against Boston College in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, the Mountaineers were down by 11 and looking pretty hopeless. They were 1-of-7 from three-point range. Juwan Staten had just six points and one assist.

But they stormed back for a win with a 49-point second half.

Two days later against Connecticut, West Virginia held a 15-point halftime lead over the defending national champions. Led by Staten's 21 points and the team's 11 steals, it cruised to victory against the Huskies to improve to 5-0.

It was a game that would have captured the attention of the AP voters no matter what, but it was really impossible for those 65 people to miss the game being played while they were filling out their ballots Sunday night.

In my humble opinion, the jury is still very much out on West Virginia. If we can agree that Connecticut was already struggling mightily coming into that game, then we should also be able to agree that we're still waiting on a signature win from the Mountaineers.

A road game against NC State on Dec. 20 is about as rough as it gets until they get three straight games against Iowa State, Oklahoma and Texas in mid-January, so it might be another six or seven weeks before we really get an idea of how good they are.

Don't let that take away from what the Mountaineers have accomplished, though. West Virginia absolutely earned its spot at No. 21 after winning the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

Loser: Colorado State Rams and Indiana Hoosiers

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In a week where seven of the nine teams on the back end of the Top 25 suffered losses, everyone becomes fair game for votes.

Miami and West Virginia went from no votes to the Top 25. Providence, Creighton and Rhode Island also got some love for impressive weeks.

But what do Colorado State and Indiana need to do to get the AP voters' attention?

The Hoosiers sit at 4-0 thanks to James Blackmon Jr. hitting a ridiculous 64.0 percent of his 25 three-point attempts. They knocked off SMU this week, in large part due to 13 points, seven assists, two steals and no turnovers from Yogi Ferrell.

They only got six votes, though. I get the impression that they're being penalized for the drama that transpired shortly before the start of the season.

If Emmitt Holt hadn't hit Devin Davis with his car and if Troy Williams and Stanford Robinson hadn't been suspended two games for failed drug tests, we'd likely be viewing Indiana as an up-and-coming team a year ahead of expectations. Instead, it's almost as if we're all waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Then you've got Colorado State, which won games against both Georgia State and Mercer by double digits in a span of 49 hours.

With UNLV getting destroyed by Stanford, Boise State barely even showing up against Wisconsin and New Mexico already suffering two losses, you have to think Colorado State is the second-best team in the Mountain West right now. But that's apparently not good enough for a single vote.

Winner: Mid-Majors

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Traditional powerhouses Kansas and Florida faltered this week, allowing teams from outside the power conferences to climb even higher in the polls.

San Diego State and VCU each moved up one spot this week to No. 15 and No. 14, respectively.

The Aztecs have been playing impeccable defense. Despite shooting just 24.6 percent from the field and scoring 51 points, they beat Cal-State Bakersfield by 24 points. Through three games, they have forced 58 turnovers while allowing just 52 successful field-goal attempts. Opponents have made just nine out of 50 three-point attempts against them.

Meanwhile, the Rams have been putting on a scoring clinic, reaching at least 85 points in all three games they've played. They're giving up a lot of points, but they're making up for it by converting many of their 13.7 steals per game into fast-break buckets.

Wichita State jumped two spots this week, leapfrogging both the Gators and the Jayhawks to get to No. 9 in the poll. Thus far, the Shockers are more San Diego State than VCU, holding opponents to an average of 55.7 points per game. Once they start shooting well, though, they could be right back in the mix for another No. 1 seed this season.

The biggest mid-major leap, though, came courtesy of Gonzaga. The Bulldogs blasted St. Joseph's by a 52-point margin just two days after comfortably taking care of business against SMU. Gonzaga's offense might be the best in the country right now, and the AP Voters took notice, elevating the Zags from No. 13 to No. 10.

We would argue Gonzaga should be even higher.

Loser: Big East

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We all expected Marquette to struggle this season. The Golden Eagles lost five of their six leading scorers from last year as well as their head coach.

But if we take Marquette's 1-2 record out of the equation, the remaining teams in the Big East have a combined record of 29-0. It's the only conference that doesn't have at least four teams that have already lost a game this season.

Surely the Big East is getting all sorts of respect in the AP poll, right?

Wrong.

Creighton did somewhat surprisingly debut in the polls after knocking off Oklahoma, but Providence was left out of the Top 25 after improving to 5-0 with wins over the ACC's Florida State and Notre Dame. Georgetown (10 votes) was the only other Big East team to get more than one vote.

Even Villanova didn't get any love, staying steady at No. 12 after getting bypassed by Gonzaga and seeing Florida fall by the wayside.

The nation would have to take notice in a big way if the Big East has a nice showing in the Battle 4 Atlantis this week. Butler and Georgetown are two of the three least respected teams in the ridiculous eight-team field, but they're plenty capable of turning that tournament on its head. Butler opens with North Carolina, while Georgetown faces Florida in the first round.

The Big East also has Seton Hall facing Illinois State in the championship game of the Paradise Jam, Xavier as the favorites to win the Wooden Legacy, Villanova with a chance to make a statement in the Legends Classic, St. John's in the NIT Season Tip-Off and Creighton facing Ole Miss and likely Cincinnati in the Emerald Coast Classic.

If Week 3 goes anywhere near as well as Week 2 did for the Big East, it could have at least three or four ranked teams next Monday.

Winner: Michigan Wolverines

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Zak Irvin and Derrick Walton Jr. have been incredible thus far.

Both sophomore guards are shooting better than 50.0 percent from three-point range, and the backcourt duo has combined to average 38.4 PPG.

But did the Wolverines really do anything to warrant jumping from No. 24 to No. 19?

The win over Bucknell was relatively impressive, but they followed it up with a lackluster showing against Detroit. Plus, we still have the same concerns about Michigan that we had before the season began.

The trio of Irvin, Walton and Caris LeVert has performed admirably, but would the interior players please stand up?

I know it's still early in the year, but how are we to expect Mark Donnal and Ricky Doyle to man the post in Big Ten play when they can barely even do so against D-II Hillsdale College?

This is just how the polls work, though. Michigan's not-exactly-dominating victories over Bucknell and Detroit weren't anywhere near as damning as the losses suffered by six of the seven teams ranked directly ahead of the Wolverines.

They jump five spots in advance of huge games this week against Oregon and either Villanova or VCU in the Legends Classic.

Loser: Duke Blue Devils

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In the past seven days, Duke beat Michigan State, Temple and Stanford.

All three of those games were played on neutral courts.

All three of those games were decided by at least 10 points.

Last Monday, the Blue Devils received 88.9 percent of possible points. This Monday, they got 90.6 percent. However, they dropped from four first-place votes to zero, with everyone moving Kentucky ahead of Duke in his or her ballot this week.

Between Duke and Michigan, we get a pretty good picture of how volatile the polls can be. Michigan barely did anything and went from 11.1 percent of votes to 24.7 percent. Duke had one of the five or six most impressive weeks in the country and nearly lost votes.

While Duke got a bit of a raw deal, it was quite the showing for the ACC in this week's poll. Not only did Miami make its debut in the rankings, but the ACC now has four teams ranked in the Top Eight, with Virginia bypassing both Kansas and Florida to join Duke, Louisville and North Carolina.

It should be one heck of a fun season watching those teams battle for conference supremacy.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.