NCAA Basketball Rankings 2015: Complete Week 15 College AP Poll Released

The teams sitting atop the Associated Press rankings may not always look like impenetrable forces set to dominate college basketball into late March, but give them this: They keep getting the job done.

After a week of games that saw the word "upset" almost removed from the lexicon, a state of inertia has washed over the sport's landscape. No. 1 Kentucky continued to escape close calls and remain undefeated. No. 2 Virginia and No. 3 Gonzaga still have just a lone loss—even if their recent performances may spell doom in the future.

And for the fourth straight week, No. 4 Duke and No. 5 Wisconsin round out the Top Five.

Here is a look at how the entire slate of rankings played out:

Ranking	Team
1	Kentucky
2	Virginia
3	Gonzaga
4	Duke
5	Wisconsin
6	Villanova
7	Arizona
8	Kansas
9	Utah
10	Notre Dame
11	Northern Iowa
12	Louisville
13	Wichita State
14	Iowa State
15	North Carolina
16	Maryland
17	Oklahoma
18	Arkansas
19	Butler
20	Baylor
21	SMU
22	Oklahoma State
23	West Virginia
24	Ohio State
25	VCU

Overall, nine of last week's 10 best teams went through the last seven days without a loss. Not all of them looked in tip-top form doing so.

Virginia defeated North Carolina State and Wake Forest by a combined five points, and four of its last five victories have come by five or fewer points. The Cavaliers have dropped to 17th in offensive efficiency, per Ken Pomeroy, and are noticeably struggling to create open shots without star Justin Anderson. They've shot a combined 4-of-23 from three-point range in the two games since losing Anderson to a broken finger.

"Playing with different guys now we just have got to get our fluidity together and just get used to playing with each other," point guard London Perrantes said, per C.L. Brown of ESPN.com. "[Anderson] was a big part of our team minutes wise, scoring wise, doing everything for us."

Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

Virginia was far from the only team struggling. Kentucky needed some tight defense late and a little luck to escape LSU with a two-point win. Duke trudged through single-digit victories on road trips to Florida State and Syracuse, its defensive deficiencies again cropping up against two bad offensive squads. Gonzaga looked like it spent more time preparing Valentine's Day cards than preparing for Pepperdine. Villanova squeezed through road tilts against Providence and Butler, while Notre Dame was two points away from being an upset victim to Clemson.

The point being: These games happen. Even great teams struggle on a Wednesday night in front of a bunch of ornery college basketball fans taking out their frustration about their organic chemistry midterm in the form of screaming insults at opposing players. Escaping those games with victories can often be more rewarding than a blowout.

The lone dissenter among Top 10 teams this week was Louisville, which dropped a frustrating 74-65 game to NC State at home. Anthony Barber pierced through the Cardinals defense to force his way to the line 13 times en route to a 21-point night, and Rick Pitino watched on as his team put together another series of clankers offensively. Louisville's 72nd-place ranking in offensive efficiency is 20 spots worse than any other team ranked in Pomeroy's top 20.

"I think our guys are not like my other teams," Pitino said, per Eric Crawford of WDRB. "They let points dictate. If they're not scoring, they don't play great defense. We've always had the mindset that we're always going to play great defense regardless of whether we score or not. Our guys get deflated when they don't score, and they paid the price tonight because of it."

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

Blemishes become more prevalent once looking past the nation's elite. While only one of the nation's Top 10 fell last week, six of the next 10 went down. North Carolina failed in its trip to Pittsburgh. Iowa State allowed Oklahoma to score 94 points, and then the Sooners turned around and were upset by Kansas State. Butler dropped a close one to higher-ranked Villanova. VCU continued its descent with a home failure against La Salle.

Perhaps most damaging, though, were the two losses suffered by Baylor.

On the surface, both were excusable. Oklahoma State and Kansas are fine basketball teams. The Bears taking losses isn't resume-crippling in a way that will send them to a No. 9 seed in March. However, they may miss their shot at a top-three seed without a strong run down the stretch.

Baylor has now been swept by both Oklahoma State and Kansas. Its 6-6 conference record puts Scott Drew's squad in a tie for sixth place in the Big 12. Given the shrug-worthy nonconference schedule and relative lack of signature wins, the Bears are going to need a strong final month.

Ed Zurga/Getty Images

"This is the Big 12. You don't lose opportunities, you've got to take them," Drew told reporters.

Baylor should be able to get back on the right track this week with games against Texas Tech and Kansas State. In fact, changes in the Top 25 will mostly be dependent on upsets. A Duke-North Carolina clash sits almost alone on the week's marquee, with only a couple of Big 12 matchups providing sources of intrigue.

It's very possible we're revisiting the AP poll a week from now with the same 25 teams listed. Week 15 marks just the second time this season no team has exited the rankings, the other being the second released poll.

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