AP College Basketball Poll 2015: Complete Week 9 Rankings Released

After an inert couple-week stretch over the holidays in which the nation's best teams played a minimal slate of games, conference play arrived with authority as we approached the new year. The result was a thrilling week of action in which a number of Top 25 teams saw their nonconference armor begin to crack.

Three unbeatens, Kentucky, Duke and Virginia, sit in the top three spots for the second straight week. The Wildcats have been idle since their Dec. 27 win over Louisville, while the Blue Devils and Cavaliers were able to get ACC play started off with victories. No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 5 Louisville also held things together in their conference openers.

Here is a look at how the remainder of the Associated Press Top 25 played out, where the changes should be immediately evident:

Ranking	Team
1	Kentucky
2	Duke
3	Virginia
4	Wisconsin
5	Louisville
6	Gonzaga
7	Arizona
8	Villanova
9	Utah
10	Texas
11	Maryland
12	Kansas
13	Notre Dame
14	West Virginia
15	Wichita State
16	Oklahoma
17	Iowa State
18	North Carolina
19	Seton Hall
20	VCU
21	Baylor
22	Ohio State
23	Arkansas
24	St. John's
25	Old Dominion

Gone from the ranks of the unbeaten is Villanova, which drops from No. 6 to No. 8 after an overtime loss at Seton Hall. Sterling Gibbs scored 20 points, and Khadeen Carrington came through with 17 off the bench in the 66-61 nail-biter. Daniel Ochefu had 19 points and 24 rebounds for the Wildcats, but he accounted for seven of their 18 field goals, as they shot just 31 percent.

"Any time we lose is very disappointing," Ochefu told reporters. "We just have to take this as a learning experience. It's very humbling to take this loss to the team that beat us in the Big East tournament last year."

Rich Schultz/Getty Images

The win was Seton Hall's second shocker in the span of four days. The Pirates also foretold a poor Big East start for then-No. 15 St. John's, earning a 78-67 win over the Red Storm. Gibbs' 25-point, eight-assist night led the way and helped propel Kevin Willard's team back into the rankings.  

"The fact that we were able to prove ourselves and beat two top-15 teams in the country, I think it shows a lot about us," Gibbs told reporters. "We really stuck together. We're a young team, but at the same time we're really talented and really tough."

Two losses in as many games drops St. John's, one of the nation's better nonconference stories, nearly out of the Top 25. Steve Lavin's squad will look to get back in the right direction Tuesday when Villanova visits Madison Square Garden. The Red Storm will enter that game short-handed, with sophomore guard Rysheed Jordan taking a leave of absence for "personal and family circumstances."

“He’s working through a very challenging situation with his family, some personal issues there,” Lavin said, per Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “We’ll have a better sense of things [later]. We want him back and expect him to be back with us, but we also want to respect the family as they go through a difficult time here."

Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

The Big East was far from the only conference to see its elite take a tumble. Ohio State's defensive deficiencies inside continued to crop up in its Big Ten-opening loss to Iowa, which saw the Hawkeyes dominate the boards and consistently get to the free-throw line. The Buckeyes are currently 48th in defensive efficiency despite a schedule that ranks 325th nationally, according to Ken Pomeroy's rankings.

Luckily for them, Thad Matta should have plenty of time to turn it around. Ohio State does not play Maryland until the end of January and hosts Wisconsin for the only time in its regular-season finale. Given the struggles of Michigan State and Michigan, the shallow Big Ten may help keep the Buckeyes afloat.

The only other major loss this week came from Baylor, which dropped a 73-63 road loss against Oklahoma. The Sooners pulled away thanks to TaShawn Thomas, Buddy Hield and Isaiah Cousins each scoring 19 or more points, while Baylor's starters (with the exception of Johnathan Motley) struggled mightily from the field.

"You've got to give a lot of the credit to OU's defense," Baylor coach Scott Drew told reporters. "Those guys really got after it. We missed a lot of layups, but there's a reason you miss a lot of layups—the pressure they put on, the contests they have."

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

Baylor has the opportunity to make an impression Wednesday night when No. 12 Kansas visits Waco. The Jayhawks have managed to recover from their 25-point loss to Temple last month with consecutive wins against Kent State and UNLV, but Bill Self's group remains inexperienced and inconsistent. Ken Pomeroy's current projections make Baylor a four-point favorite and give the Bears a 66 percent chance of winning.

That matchup is among a number of head-to-head Top 25 clashes as conference play continues. Virginia and Notre Dame, Louisville and North Carolina and Iowa State and West Virginia all square off in the first huge college basketball Saturday of the season. The No. 13 Irish also travel to Chapel Hill on Monday night, where they'll pair with an Oklahoma-Texas matchup to give the week a proper start.   

By this time next week, odds are the rankings will look nothing like their predecessors. For now we'll continue to enjoy the relative inertia atop the landscape. It may be our last week of sanity.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter