Winners and Losers from the AP College Basketball Top 25 Rankings in Week 12

The Associated Press voters have spoken, and Kentucky remains atop college basketball's AP Top 25 for the 12th consecutive week.

Certainly, this comes as no surprise. The Wildcats won both of their games this week to improve to 19-0 on the year. Nor is it a surprise that Virginia is still No. 2 after (barely) remaining undefeated this weekend against Virginia Tech.

In fact, things were pretty stable throughout the poll. Villanova dropped three spots for getting smacked around by now-ranked Georgetown. Iowa State and Oklahoma plummeted a little bit after tough weeks in the Big 12.

Other than that, though, no team moved more than three spots from where it was last week.

Still, with three new squads in this week's poll, there was no shortage of winners and losers.

Winner: Georgetown Hoyas

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Once a near staple in the AP Top 10, Georgetown hadn't been ranked higher than No. 25 since losing to Florida Gulf Coast in the 2013 NCAA tournament.

Now that the No. 21 Hoyas finally have a signature win, though, it's time to start taking them seriously again.

Prior to thrashing Villanova by a score of 78-58, Georgetown's resume was of the no-great-wins, no-bad-losses variety. An overtime victory over Indiana was as good as it got, but "quality" road losses to Xavier and Providence were about as close as the Hoyas came to a shameful defeat.

They were on the right side of the bubble in projected brackets but couldn't quite sneak into the AP Top 25.

Then their defense showed up.

They were all over Villanova all night long last Monday, forcing 17 turnovers from a team that made just 14 field goals. The Wildcats didn't just have trouble scoring in the paint; they had trouble even shooting the ball. Villanova attempted just 18 two-point field goals while trying to figure out how to deal with Mikael Hopkins and Joshua Smith.

In the other game Georgetown played this week, Marquette simply couldn't miss from downtown. The Golden Eagles shot 13-of-25 as a team. Matt Carlino and Duane Wilson both scored 26 points. But six Hoyas scored in double figures—including 18 points and 15 rebounds from Smith—as they prevailed for a road conference win in overtime, 95-85.

Loser: Iowa State Cyclones

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Surprising upsets of top teams were very few and far between this week.

In fact, there was only one.

Texas Tech had lost eight of its previous nine games—a home win over North Texas in late December the only thing standing between the Red Raiders and an entire month without a victory. The losses came by an average margin of 16.3 points. Within seven days of facing Iowa State, they had lost at home to TCU by 20 and fell by the same margin at Oklahoma State.

According to OddsShark.com, Iowa State was a 9.5-point favorite, and even that seemed too low. All signs pointed to this being a Cyclones blowout.

Instead, Iowa State couldn't shoot to save its life, and Texas Tech was lethal from three-point range and the free-throw line. The Red Raiders stormed the court after the 78-73 win that finally got them on the board in Big 12 play.

Bad things happen when the Cyclones can't score. They're 11-0 when scoring 75 or more points, but they're 3-4 otherwise—and two of those three wins were by two-point margins.

They dropped six spots to No. 15 in advance of Monday night's showdown with Texas.

Winner: Miami Hurricanes

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Once upon a time in December, the Hurricanes were ranked as high as No. 15 in the AP poll.

When they fell, though, they fell hard. The Canes were blown out at home by Green Bay and Eastern Kentucky in a span of two weeks and shortly thereafter lost to Providence by double digits on a neutral court.

All of a sudden, those "signature" wins over Florida and Illinois looked like anomalies for an overrated team.

But then they forced Virginia to double overtime before coming up short. They smoked Duke in Cameron and nearly won at Notre Dame four days later.

Now, it's the temporary swoon that seems out of place on an otherwise impressive resume.

The Hurricanes were No. 27 in last week's poll, but close wins over North Carolina State and Syracuse were more than enough to vault them into this week's Top 25—thanks in large part to teams ranked No. 19-25 suffering a combined eight losses in the past seven days.

Outside of a home game against Louisville next Tuesday, No. 23 Miami has a pretty easy four-week stretch.

Of course, that's also what we thought in December.

Loser: Seton Hall Pirates

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Those early conference wins over St. John's and Villanova were fool's gold.

Since then, the Pirates have lost four out of five, including the most recent brutal week in which they lost at home to DePaul and were blown out at Butler.

Between the two losses, they shot a combined 5-of-40 from three-point range. Seton Hall hasn't exactly been a team that lives and dies by the three this season, but it's pretty hard to live while shooting 12.5 percent.

The Pirates can forget about the AP poll for a while. They dropped from No. 24 to just 10 votes this week.

Can they turn things around in time to still make the NCAA tournament?

Three weeks ago they seemed like a lock for the dance. Without Isaiah Whitehead, who's out with a stress fracture in his foot, they have been looking like anything other than a tournament team. Still no word on an exact return date for the freshman. But he can't come back soon enough for the slumping Pirates.

Winner: Teams Roy Williams Has Coached

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It took 12 weeks, but both Kansas and North Carolina are starting to play as well as we thought they would before the season began.

They have their freshmen to both thank and blame for that.

For the Tar Heels, Justin Jackson has been heating up. The McDonald's All-American got out to an unreliable start, but he has scored at least 14 points in each of his last three games. Through seven ACC contests, he is shooting 58.2 percent from the field.

His improvement has allowed Marcus Paige to really catch fire as well. During the current five-game winning streak, the preseason All-American has been just as good as we remember from last season. The Tar Heels didn't have any monumental victories this week, but they looked good enough to warrant jumping two spots to No. 13.

Meanwhile, Roy Williams' former team reasserted itself as the overwhelming favorite to grab another Big 12 title by winning a home game against Oklahoma and taking care of business at Texas by a 13-point margin.

Kelly Oubre has been playing well for a little while now, but Cliff Alexander was unstoppable this week, tallying 28 points and 22 rebounds between the two games. He played a career-high 27 minutes against Texas on Saturday, suggesting that he might finally be playing his way out of Bill Self's doghouse.

The Jayhawks jumped two spots this week to No. 9.

Loser: Ohio State Buckeyes

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It had been a while since Ohio State went an entire voting week without a loss. The Buckeyes lost a home game to Iowa on Dec. 30, a road game to Indiana on Jan. 10 and were swept by Iowa on Jan. 17.

But they went two for two this week—including repaying Indiana for the earlier defeat.

However, it somehow wasn't enough to get back into the AP Top 25. The Buckeyes are on the outside looking in at No. 28.

In the game against the undersized Hoosiers, Ohio State owned the paint—which is not something we've been able to say very often this season. The Buckeyes made 28 of 38 two-point attempts. They were led by a pair of freshmen as Jae'Sean Tate had 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting and D'Angelo Russell had 22 points and 10 assists.

For Russell, this was anything but news. He has been absolutely killing it this season and even more so in Big Ten play.

Tate's dominant performance, though, seemingly came out of nowhere. Yes, he was a highly rated freshman, but he had yet to really look the part. Prior to Sunday's 35-minute game, his career highs were 25 minutes and 12 points.

All season long, the Buckeyes have been in desperate need of someone who can reliably play second fiddle to Russell. Marc Loving has been a great shooter, but he doesn't take very many shots. Sam Thompson is ridiculously athletic, but his offensive outputs wildly wax and wane.

If the game against Indiana was a sign of things to come from Tate, he could be the missing piece that pushes Ohio State back into the Top 25 before a deep tournament run.

Winner: Oklahoma Sooners

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"That was embarrassing. They came in here and took us out of everything. They played harder than us, showed more pride than us. They took us out of every part of the game."

According to Mike Finger of the Houston Chronicle, that's what Texas senior forward Jonathan Holmes said after Oklahoma came in and blew the Longhorns out of their own gym by a 21-point margin Jan. 5. Right before that game, the Sooners had beaten Baylor by 10 points and were flying high.

Where has that team been?

After this week's seven-point loss to Kansas and 11-point loss to Baylor, the Sooners have now dropped four of their last five games and seven overall.

Still, it somehow wasn't enough for them to drop out of the latest AP Top 25, as they dropped five spots to No. 24.

Even more fortunate for the Sooners? Most of the toughest games are now behind them.

They still have to travel to Iowa State, but they have already played their road games against Baylor, Kansas, Texas and West Virginia. They're currently below .500 in conference play (3-4), but don't be surprised if the Sooners finish in second or third place in the Big 12.

Loser: Mountain West Conference

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There's somewhat of a consensus that someone from this conference deserves to be ranked, but the AP voters haven't been able to agree which team that should be as of late.

All for one and one for all worked great for the Three Musketeers, but three conference foes equally jostling for a spot in the Top 25 has amounted to none for all.

A convincing victory over New Mexico might have been enough to boost Wyoming back into the Top 25, but needing overtime to win a home game against a six-loss team doesn't inspire much confidence.

San Diego State was the conference's leading vote-getter a week ago, but the Aztecs lost to Colorado State this week, propelling the Rams to the forefront of the discussion despite a pair of losses earlier in the month. Colorado State came in 26th place in this week's poll.

Will anyone separate from the pack in either direction?

We'll know by the end of Valentine's Day. Colorado State, San Diego State and Wyoming effectively play another round-robin tournament over the next three weeks after each going 1-1 in the first rodeo.

San Diego State should be considered the favorite to go 2-0 in those games—because both of their contests are at home and because the Aztecs were the overwhelming favorites before the season began—but that's why they play the games.

Winner and Loser: Butler Bulldogs

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Congratulations to Butler for getting into the AP Top 25. It's a much-deserved ranking after destroying previously ranked Seton Hall on Sunday.

But as we've noted a couple of times in the past, being ranked No. 25 has become a deadly curse.

Week 6: No. 25 Michigan State loses a home game to Texas Southern.

Week 7: No. 25 TCU beats Grambling State by 41 points but drops out of the poll. The Horned Frogs have lost five of their last six.

Week 8: No. 25 Georgetown loses by 17 points at Xavier.

Week 9: No. 25 Old Dominion gets into the AP poll for the first time in school history, only to lose that week to Western Kentucky.

Week 10: No. 25 Wyoming, ranked for the first time since March 1988, loses a home game to San Diego State and needs three overtimes to beat Fresno State.

Week 11: No. 25 Iowa gets blown out by Wisconsin by a 32-point margin before also losing to Purdue.

Best of luck, Bulldogs. You'll apparently need it to win your only game this week against Marquette.

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