Winners and Losers from the AP College Basketball Top 25 Rankings in Week 7

In college basketball's final AP Top 25 before Christmas, all nine undefeated teams found their way into the poll.

Colorado State and TCU were on the outside looking in one week ago, but those schools got a lot of help this past week in the form of bad losses for Miami and Michigan State. Butler and San Diego State also dropped out of the Top 25, but losses to Indiana and Cincinnati, respectively, shouldn't be considered bad ones.

We don't have individual "Winner" slides dedicated to either Colorado State or TCU, but they just might be the biggest winners of all, finally receiving recognition for lasting this deep into the season with a zero in the loss column.

Elsewhere, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Washington each jumped a few spots for impressive wins while Ohio State and Oklahoma tumbled slightly for suffering losses.

All that and more in this week's winners and losers of the AP Top 25.

Winner: Washington Huskies

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

On a neutral court against a very good Oklahoma team, the Huskies jumped out to a 37-17 lead before backing their way into a resume-building two-point win.

Most noteworthy about the win is that it was a full team effort.

Robert Upshaw came into the game averaging 10.3 rebounds and 4.7 blocks over his previous three contests, but he had just four boards and two rejections. Nigel Williams-Goss had at least 10 points or 10 assists in every prior game this season, but he finished the night with just eight points and six assists.

Rather than their usual suspects, eight Huskies scored at least six points. None tallied more than 12.

This is a very dangerous team, and the nation is finally starting to take notice. Washington jumped three spots to No. 13 in this week's poll in advance of a sneakily difficult week against Tulane and Stony Brook.

Loser: Miami Hurricanes

Joel Auerbach/Associated Press

Coming into this past week, the three-point arc was treating Miami very well. The Hurricanes were holding opponents to 29.2 percent three-point shooting while converting on 41.6 percent of their own attempts.

Those numbers took a big step of regression to the mean, though, as Miami shot 8-of-27 (29.6 percent) from downtown against an Eastern Kentucky team that hit 14-of-26 (53.8 percent) in a 72-44 rout.

It's pretty hard to lose by 28 points at home to an opponent that attempts just four free throws, but that should at least start to tell the story of why Miami dropped from No. 18 to just 27 votes.

Frankly, it's a miracle the Hurricanes got any votes. According to KenPom.com (subscription required), this was Eastern Kentucky's first win over a team ranked in the top 315. Michigan's loss to NJIT may well remain the most shocking one, but this Miami loss is the leader in the clubhouse for most disturbing loss of the 2014-15 season.

Winner: Rest of ACC

Steve Helber/Associated Press

Horrendous as Miami's loss was, it was a pretty great week for the rest of the ACC—minus Montrezl Harrell's attempt to moonlight as a boxer.

Virginia picked up an absolutely ridiculous 49-point victory over Harvard on Sunday that was arguably more impressive than Kentucky's 83-44 desolation of UCLA from the previous day. The Cavaliers were up 39-8 at the half and held the Crimson to 16.0 percent field-goal shooting in the entire game.

(It was about this time last year that Virginia had that inexplicable 35-point loss to Tennessee. It must feel nice to be on the better end of a late December blowout.)

Coupled with a nice win over Cleveland State earlier in the week, Virginia was able to leapfrog idle Wisconsin to join Duke and Louisville in the Top Five.

Elsewhere, North Carolina picked up a strong win over Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic, jumping from No. 24 to No. 20.

Also, Notre Dame beat the tar out of Purdue by a score of 94-63. Jerian Grant and Zach Auguste are the team's top two scorers, but they each had just 10 points in the blowout. Six Fighting Irish scored in double figures, propelling the team from No. 21 to No. 16.

Loser: Big Ten

Al Goldis/Associated Press

The Big Ten was already in trouble, but things went from bad to worse this weekend.

Saturday was billed as a make-or-break day for the conference, and it mostly went for broke.

Indiana had a nice win over Butler—leading to 11 votes this week for the Hoosiers—but Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Iowa and Purdue all suffered losses. (So did Rutgers at home to St. Francis, if you're into that sort of information.)

Most of those losses were, at worst, understandable.

SMU is arguably the best team in the AAC, and it just got Markus Kennedy back from an academic suspension. Michigan probably should have won at home, but it wasn't a surprising loss. Ohio State was predictably out-muscled by North Carolina. Iowa lost to a very good Northern Iowa team, as did Purdue to a very good Notre Dame team—though the 31-point margin in the Boilermakers' loss was an eyesore.

Michigan State losing at home to Texas Southern, though? Goodness gracious. Michigan State's tournament resume was already woefully devoid of quality wins, and failing to protect home court against a SWAC opponent isn't going to help matters. Branden Dawson or no Branden Dawson, that was terrible.

But, hey, at least Wisconsin and Maryland still look good. Also, Penn State improved to 11-1 with a win over Drexel, thus bringing us to a world where Maryland and Penn State are two of the three most successful Big Ten basketball teams.

Hope you brought canned goods and bottled water.

Winner: Northern Iowa Panthers

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

The AP voters are playing one heck of a game of "We love Northern Iowa; we love Northern Iowa not," as the Panthers have gone from unranked to ranked and back and forth again over the past four weeks.

They bizarrely dropped out of the Top 25 last week after suffering their first loss of the season—in double overtime at VCU, no less.

After a key, defensive win over an in-state rival, they're back again at No. 23.

This week's game against the Iowa Hawkeyes was the polar opposite of last week's game against VCU. Against the Rams, both teams were flying up and down the court, playing minimal defense and rarely missing a shot. They simply shut down Iowa after the intermission, though, turning a six-point halftime deficit into a 12-point win.

The Hawkeyes only converted on three field-goal attempts while committing 10 turnovers in the second half.

Defense wins championships, and it might win Northern Iowa a Missouri Valley title.

Loser: Chaos

Victor Calzada/Associated Press

As many have noted multiple times this season, anyone outside the Top 10 is beatable on any given night by any given opponent. We've got a few losers coming up in the next few slides to demonstrate that observation.

However, some of those Top 10 teams almost finally fell victim this week.

Villanova arguably should have lost to Syracuse, as the Orange led for more than 39 consecutive minutes—including holding a five-point lead in the final 14 seconds—only to let the Wildcats come back and win in overtime.

A different group of undefeated Wildcats was also on the ropes as Arizona was able to survive at UTEP—thanks in large part to Vince Hunter's "decision" to foul out for the Miners with more than eight minutes remaining in the game.

Duke struggled to pull away from both Elon and Connecticut, and Gonzaga oddly had trouble scoring at home against Cal Poly.

In the end, though, the top 10 teams went another week without a loss. They are a combined 106-4, with each of the four losses coming against one of the teams ranked in the Top Three.

It won't last forever, but complete and utter chaos remained at bay for at least one more week.

Winner: Baylor Bears

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

Baylor barely missed the cut last week, coming in 26th place just 19 votes behind No. 25 Michigan State.

With those Spartans joining Butler, Miami and San Diego State on the list of ranked teams who suffered losses and subsequently dropped out of the polls, there was plenty of room for Baylor to jump into this week's rankings at No. 22.

The Bears have played six games against teams ranked in KenPom's top 75 (subscription required). They went 5-1 in those games with a neutral-court loss to Illinois that probably wouldn't have happened if Kenny Chery was healthy.

Expectations for Baylor were pretty murky with Brady Heslip, Isaiah Austin and Cory Jefferson all leaving town, but this has quickly evolved into a very good team.

Too bad sneaking into the back of the Top 25 only puts Baylor at No. 6 on the Big 12 totem pole. That conference is beyond stacked.

Loser: California Golden Bears

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

This is an exercise typically reserved for later in the season when discussing teams on the tournament bubble, but it seems appropriate today given the continued lack of respect for California.

One of these three resumes belongs to California. The other two belong to teams ranked in the Top 17.

Team A: 10-1, 2-1 vs. KenPom Top 90, 2-1 vs. RPI Top 90, 3-1 in road/neutral setting

Team B: 11-1, 2-1 vs. KenPom Top 90, 2-1 vs. RPI Top 90, 2-1 in road/neutral setting

Team C: 9-1, 2-1 vs. KenPom Top 90, 2-1 vs. RPI Top 90, 1-0 in road/neutral setting

Can't tell the difference, right? Maybe Team A gets a little extra credit for playing more games away from home?

So, pray tell, why is Team A (California) unable to crack into the Top 25 while Team B (Notre Dame) and Team C (St. John's) have now been ranked for three straight weeks?

(Hint: The answer rhymes with "beast most pious.")

The Golden Bears picked up a nice win on Friday night over Eastern Washington, but the 10 p.m. ET start didn't do much to help them overcome the East Coast bias. For beating the team that beat Indiana and nearly beat Washington, California's vote count improved ever so slightly from 19 to 32.

At long last, voters will have no choice but to pay attention to the Golden Bears as they host Wisconsin on Monday night.

Winner: Kentucky Wildcats

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

At this point in the year, there's typically a fair amount of debate about the best team in the country. Only once in the past 12 years has there been a unanimous No. 1 team in Week 7—the 2008-09 North Carolina Tar Heels who went on to win the national championship.

Those Tar Heels were actually the unanimous No. 1 team for each of the first eight weeks of the season, and it's hard to remember why Kentucky isn't on pace to match that feat. Arizona, Duke and Wisconsin are very good, but nobody is on Kentucky's level.

After embarrassing UCLA on Saturday—remember, it was 41-7 at halftime—the Wildcats are No. 1 in everyone's ballot for a third consecutive week.

Louisville should put up a significantly stiffer challenge on Saturday, but there's no doubt the Wildcats would push the streak to four weeks if they beat the Cardinals.

Loser: Old Dominion Monarchs

USA TODAY Sports

We mentioned the East Coast bias on California's slide, but how about the power conference bias playing out with Old Dominion serving as the poster boys?

One week ago, Old Dominion received four votes—a slight nod of recognition from the AP voters for wins over VCU, LSU and Richmond. This week, the Monarchs added a very nice win over Georgia State before also taking care of business against Maryland Eastern Shore.

Despite four teams dropping out of the Top 25, Old Dominion received just seven votes this week.

Meanwhile, TCU continued its winning streak against cupcakes and was rewarded with 25th place in this week's poll.

Question: If you don't view beating VCU, LSU and Georgia State as grounds for being ranked, how in the world does TCU get in with nothing better than a couple of wins over Ole Miss and Mississippi State? Is the zero in the loss column really worth that much?

Take solace, Monarchs fans, because the rankings that actually somewhat matter have taken notice. ODU is No. 19 in ESPN's RPI rankings, while TCU ranks 69th.

The Horned Frogs can have their December ranking. The Monarchs are the ones far more likely to be dancing in March.

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