Winners and Losers from the AP College Basketball Top 25 Rankings in Week 13

After Virginia's loss to Duke on Saturday night, Kentucky is now the only undefeated men's college basketball team in the nation, reclaiming the honor of unanimous No. 1 in this week's Associated Press Top 25.

Kentucky's spot was just about the only thing that didn't change in a week of rankings chock-full of winners and losers. A total of 15 losses were suffered by 13 different ranked teams in the past seven days, including eight losses to unranked teams.

It was the type of week where Butler played one game and needed overtime to beat that .500 team before moving up three spots in the poll—finally breaking the curse of No. 25 in the process.

Indiana and Miami dropped out of the Top 25 and were replaced by Ohio State and SMU.

Read on for more on all four of those teams and the rest of this week's winners and losers.

Winner: Ohio State Buckeyes

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If you're only going to play one game in a given week, might as well make it count.

Ohio State did exactly that.

Already right on the fringe of cracking into last week's AP Top 25 at No. 28, the Buckeyes hosted then-No. 16 Maryland on Thursday night in what was supposed to be an informative and fun battle between two of the primary candidates for the Freshman of the Year Award—Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell and Maryland's Melo Trimble.

However, neither the individual nor team battle was much of a contest.

Russell had 18 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and two steals in leading his team to an 80-56 victory. Trimble missed all eight of his field-goal attempts, finishing the night with just three points, one assist and one rebound.

Marc Loving added 19 off the bench for Ohio State. Freshman forward Jae'Sean Tate had his second consecutive great game against a ranked opponent, tallying 16 points and eight rebounds against the Terrapins after a 20-point, six-rebound game against Indiana last Sunday.

Four of the Buckeyes' next five games are on the road, but they did plenty in their last two home games to re-enter the AP Top 25 at No. 20 this week.

Loser: VCU Rams

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After a 24-point win over George Washington on Tuesday that extended their winning streak to 12 games, the VCU Rams suffered a home loss to Richmond and dropped from No. 14 to No. 18 in this week's poll.

But the real loss came hours after the game, when it was revealed that senior point guard Briante Weber had torn his ACL, MCL and meniscus on a non-contact injury late in the second half.

Obviously we never like to see anyone injured, but this one was a very tough pill to swallow.

The best individual defender in the country in each of the past three seasons, Weber was a mere 12 steals away from breaking the all-time record in that category. He gave us all he had on every defensive possession, only for his college career to end on an innocent jump stop he had probably made a couple thousand times.

He wasn't just the face of Shaka Smart's "havoc" defense. He embodied everything we love about college basketball, and we wish him nothing but the best in his recovery.

The harsh reality is, we have to immediately ask if and how the team can continue to excel without him. Look for sophomore JeQuan Lewis and freshman Jonathan Williams to get considerably more playing time for a team that is still in the mix to win the Atlantic 10.

Winner: Butler Bulldogs

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If you've been an avid follower of this weekly AP Winners and Losers staple, then you probably already know that Butler broke a curse nearly two months in the making by appearing at No. 22 in this week's consensus ballot.

Not since Notre Dame was ranked No. 25 on December 8 has the 25th-ranked team remained in the poll the following week. Michigan State, TCU, Georgetown, Old Dominion, Wyoming and Iowa all tried and failed, but Butler finally pulled it off.

It certainly wasn't easy, though.

The Bulldogs only played one game this past week and trailed at Marquette by 10 points with less than four minutes remaining before clawing back for a win in overtime. Roosevelt Jones and Kameron Woods combined for six points in 77 minutes, but Andrew Chrabascz scored a career-high 30 points—including six in the extra period.

In order to stay ranked for a third straight week, they'll need to protect home court against St. John's and DePaul.

Loser: Duke Haters

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By remaining at No. 4 this week after a loss at Notre Dame and a win at Virginia, Duke has now suffered three losses this season without once dropping lower than No. 5.

This is obviously very frustrating news for Duke's haters and conspiracy theorists.

Wichita State loses a road game by 16 points to a very good Northern Iowa team and drops four spots in the rankings. However, when the Blue Devils lose a home game by 16 points to an erratic Miami team, they only slip one spot (thanks to a timely win over Louisville a few days later)?

Once again, Duke immediately bailed itself out after a loss with a gigantic win.

To a rational human being, Duke's spot in the AP Top 25 throughout the season has made perfect sense. The Blue Devils have suffered a few losses, but they have seven wins away from home against the RPI Top 50 and always seem to come up with a big win right when they need it the most.

But very few people are rational about their Duke hatred. They only remember how incredibly happy they were to see the Blue Devils lose a game and then can't comprehend why they didn't fall completely out of the rankings.

They may have used up the last of their mulligans, though. If Duke loses to either Georgia Tech or Notre Dame this week, it will almost certainly drop out of the Top Five. And there will be much rejoicing.

Winner: Northern Iowa Panthers

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Since opening Missouri Valley play with a loss to Evansville, Northern Iowa has now won nine in a row while holding each of those opponents to 60 points or fewer.

But it was all for show until Saturday's huge win over Wichita State.

The Panthers blew the game wide open late in the first half and had no trouble turning on the cruise control from there for a 70-54 win. Seth Tuttle was simply incredible for Northern Iowa. Not only did he finish the game with a career-high 29 points, but he also completely neutralized Darius Carter on the defensive end of the court.

It was the type of dominant performance that left us wondering why the mid-major star wasn't deemed good enough for a spot in the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25.

The Panthers improved to 20-2—one of just six teams in the country with that many wins—and jumped four spots to No. 14 in this week's Top 25.

Gonzaga is still the "mid-major" to beat, but with VCU down and out and Northern Iowa stomping Wichita State by a 16-point margin, the Panthers are now without a doubt the second-best team from a non-power conference.

There's still the minor matter of the rematch at Wichita State at the end of February, but Northern Iowa just might be ranked in the Top 10 by the time that game rolls around.

Loser: Texas Longhorns

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After Monday's three-point loss to Iowa State, I wrote about Texas' struggles and the fact that the Longhorns need to turn things around in a hurry if they want to avoid missing out on the NCAA tournament.

They promptly went out and lost to Baylor by 23 points on Saturday.

So much for that plan to get Myles Turner as many touches as possible. The freshman phenom played just 16 minutes against the Bears, scoring two points on five field-goal attempts.

Their woeful three-point shooting returned on a 5-of-26 night and their defense again proved to be completely incapable of slowing down anyone.

After the most recent loss, Jonathan Holmes told Chris Hummer of 247Sports.com, "We couldn't hit a shot, we weren't getting stops and they dominated the glass. It just wasn't a good day for us...Offensively if you’re not hitting shots, the urgency on defense should be even higher. When we're not shooting the ball well, we have to find a way to win games."

The Longhorns have now lost six of their last 10 games—four of them by double-digit margins. It was almost enough for the AP voters to kick them to the curb. They dropped six spots to No. 25.

There are plenty of opportunities for marquee wins in Big 12 play. We're just really starting to wonder whether Texas has what it takes to capitalize on them.

Winner: Other Big 12 Teams

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Texas really took it on the chin this week, but the rest of the Big 12 emerged smelling like roses.

Iowa State, West Virginia and Oklahoma went a combined 6-0 over the past seven days while teams ranked around them suffered losses.

Iowa State was No. 15, but No. 11 through No. 14 each lost this week, enabling the Cyclones to jump four spots to No. 11 after home wins over Texas and TCU.

Meanwhile, West Virginia was at No. 17 seven days ago, but of the six teams that were ranked directly ahead of the Mountaineers, Iowa State was the only one that didn't lose a game. Beating Kansas State and Texas Tech was enough to vault WVU two spots to No. 15.

It was more of the same for Oklahoma. The Sooners were ranked No. 24 before absolutely destroying Texas Tech and winning a road game against rival Oklahoma State. Each of the teams that were ranked No. 19 through No. 23 lost at least one game last week. As a result, the Sooners climbed three spots to No. 21.

Kansas also had a 2-0 week while formerly No. 8 Notre Dame suffered a letdown loss to Pittsburgh after beating Duke, which bumped the Jayhawks up one spot to No. 8.

Even Baylor was able to move up one spot to No. 19 while suffering a loss this week, thanks to the 23-point shellacking the Bears gave Texas.

Loser: Indiana Hoosiers

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Over the course of their last two losses to Ohio State and Purdue, the Hoosiers' opponents have shot 51-of-70 (72.9 percent) from inside the arc.

In the words of Seth Davis, that's not how you get Capone.

Even Rutgers—which still ranks 314th in the nation in two-point field-goal percentage, according to KenPom.com—made 46 percent of its two-point shots in a near upset of Indiana.

Long story short, interior defense is failing the Hoosiers in spectacular fashion with Hanner Mosquera-Perea still sidelined by a right knee injury. They have no hope of slowing down any team that wants to score in the paint.

Tuesday is probably not the best time in the world for a road game against Wisconsin. 

Even against mediocre opponents, Indiana needs near-perfect execution along the perimeter in order to win games right now, and the AP voters took notice. The Hoosiers dropped from No. 22 to just 18 votes this week.

Winner: SMU Mustangs

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Replacing Indiana in the AP Top 25 is a team the Hoosiers beat way back in the first week of the season.

In case you haven't noticed, though, the Mustangs aren't exactly the same team they were two months ago. Since dropping to 2-3 with a home loss to Arkansas, SMU has won 16 of its last 17 games to finally get back into the rankings at No. 23 after a 10-week hiatus.

One of the big keys has been the play of the man I projected as the AAC Player of the Year before he was ruled academically ineligible for the first semester. Markus Kennedy missed the first 10 games and took another four to get into a rhythm, but he has averaged 14.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.9 blocks over his last eight games.

SMU has been through a lot this year. The Mustangs lost super frosh Emmanuel Mudiay before he had a chance to play a game. Justin Martin left the team in the middle of the year to turn pro. Keith Frazier was recently ruled academically ineligible for the rest of the season. Nic Moore has been hot and cold while playing through a knee bruise suffered in December.

Through it all, though, this team has somehow continued getting better.

Time for things to get serious.

The Mustangs have racked up wins against the likes of UCF, South Florida, East Carolina and Tulane, but their final eight games are brutal: two against Connecticut, two against Tulsa, vs. Cincinnati, vs. Temple, at Memphis and at Houston.

Should they somehow push this winning streak to 24 out of 25 games, they just might earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Loser: Miami Hurricanes

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A lot of ranked ACC teams suffered losses this past week. North Carolina blew an 18-point lead to Louisville. Virginia lost to Duke, which lost to Notre Dame, which lost to Pittsburgh.

But none of that even begins to compare to Miami cementing its status as the most Jekyll-and-Hyde team in the country.

The Hurricanes lost by 20 points at home to a Georgia Tech squad that had yet to win an ACC game this season. A few days later, they blew a 16-point lead, losing at Florida State by a score of 55-54.

In addition to those two losses, Miami was also beaten by double digits at home by both Eastern Kentucky and Green Bay earlier this season. Still, this team has marquee wins over Duke, Illinois and Florida and nearly beat both Notre Dame and Virginia. 

It's been one of those seasons where there are plenty of possible tournament-worthy resumes belonging to teams without any big wins or bad losses, but Miami now has three of each. With the way things have been going, the Hurricanes will probably beat Louisville on Tuesday before getting blown out by Clemson on Sunday.

They were No. 23 in last week's AP Top 25, but they didn't receive a single vote this week.

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