Winners and Losers from the AP College Basketball Top 25 Rankings in Week 16

So much for rivalry week.

A total of eight losses by teams ranked in last Monday's Associated Press Top 25 resulted in minimal movement in this week's poll.

If you're new to the AP winners and losers realm, you might think eight losses in a given week is normal, or even a lot, but we've grown accustomed to seeing as many as 14 teams suffer a combined 17 losses in most weeks.

However, don't start thinking that the top teams are finally asserting their dominance in advance of a chalky NCAA tournament. We've merely reached the eye of the hurricane.

There were still eight losses, though, so that certainly doesn't ring true for everyone. Louisville had one of the worst weeks of any team this season, Oklahoma State lost twice and Ohio State suffered a loss that has us questioning its tournament worthiness. Providence and San Diego State were the primary benefactors of those losses, jumping into the back end of the Top 25.

Read on for the rest of this week's winners and losers.

Loser: Louisville Cardinals

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Losing a game to an unranked team with a self-imposed postseason ban is a great way to earn a spot on our list of losers.

Doing so in the same week that a key player from an already short rotation was dismissed from the team puts you in the discussion for worst week of the entire season.

Losing at Syracuse while Chris Jones served a suspension was understandable—though, not necessarily forgivable directly on the heels of a home loss to North Carolina State last weekend. The more surprising result of Louisville's week was the two-point win at home against Miami in which Jones played 36 minutes and tallied 17 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.

But the Cardinals will have to live with zeroes in each of those columns from Jones going forward, as the school announced on Sunday afternoon that he has been dismissed from the team. It's an absolutely brutal blow for a team that was already struggling to win games against the middle tier of the ACC.

Jones was certainly hit or miss throughout the course of the season, but he was, at worst, the third-most important player on the roster. The Cardinals still have two great players in Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier to carry the load, but it won't be easy, as they have the 40th-ranked strength of schedule. Feel free to ask Georgia State, which has the 192nd-toughest strength of schedule and eight losses, what it's like to only have two scorers to carry the load.

There's a remote possibility that this will be Quentin Snider's opportunity to blossom into a stud. The freshman point guard had 13 points, four assists and no turnovers in the game against Syracuse. More likely, however, is that Louisville—a team that has already lost three of its last five games—is headed for a significant drop in production.

The Cardinals have already dropped in the AP poll, slipping five spots to No. 17 this week.

Winner: West Virginia Mountaineers

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The old saying is that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, but West Virginia appears to be experiencing that phenomenon a month early.

The first two weeks of February were simply awful for the Mountaineers. They were beaten by Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma by at least 18 points each game. The one game they won was a home matchup against a Kansas State team that has struggled like crazy since mid-January—and West Virginia tried to give that one away, too, trailing in the final two minutes.

But it merely took a one-point win over Kansas and a 10-point road win over Oklahoma State and, just like that, all has been forgiven. The Mountaineers jumped up three spots to No. 20 this week.

Though each game is a war, it must be nice to play in the Big 12 where nearly every win is a key one and it's almost impossible to have a bad loss. 

Here's hoping the latter half of February remains kind to the Mountaineers, because they have rematches against Texas and Baylor before the end of the month—two teams who beat them by a combined 45 points earlier this season.

Loser: Oklahoma State Cowboys

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Of course, it ain't all sunshine and rainbows in the Big 12. Even with TCU and Texas Tech admirably volunteering for the role of conference bottom-feeders for a third straight year, there aren't enough wins for everyone to be seated at the grown-ups' table, and Oklahoma State is finding that out the hard way.

Just 10 days ago, the Cowboys were on top of the world. They went 4-1 in five consecutive games against teams in the AP Top 25, including three wins against Texas, Kansas and Baylor in the span of six days. In less than a week's time, they went from a bubble team to a projected No. 5 seed.

Almost as quickly as they rose, they plummeted. The hottest team in the country somehow lost at TCU by 15 points before extending that to a three-game losing streak against West Virginia and Iowa State at home this week.

The good news is that the Cowboys get to breathe for a little while. Their only games in the next 12 days are at Texas Tech and at home against TCU.

The bad news is that they'll enter those games with a sub-.500 conference record. And while conference record isn't worth a hill of beans to the selection committee, that 7-8 record—as well as the 10 overall losses—served as an eyesore to the AP. Oklahoma State was booted from the Top 25 this week after appearing at No. 22 seven days ago.

Winner: San Diego State Aztecs

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There was minimal movement to and from the AP Top 25 this week, but San Diego State was one of the teams to capitalize on the pitfalls of Ohio State and Oklahoma State, climbing back into the poll for the first time in more than two months at No. 24. It helped that Dwayne Polee II finally made his return to the court after missing 15 games due to a heart condition.

According to Marc Zeigler of U-T San Diego, Polee said, "It's been exciting, and kind of stressful. I wanted to get on the floor so bad and do something I love so much...I just tried to get in there and do what I do best, playing defense and bring energy, and I think I did some of that and we went on a little run."

Now, our expectations for Polee aren't nearly what they were before the season began—back when pretty much everyone had him on their list of projected breakout stars, reasoning that someone had to score for this team and that he did a fine job of it in 2013-14 with relatively limited minutes. However, it's worth noting how much we thought he was capable of doing this year.

If he's able to be 75 percent of that player in 60 percent of the minutes, it would be a big help for a team still desperately searching for even remotely reliable scorers.

Loser: Utah Utes

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The Utes seemed to be eternally teetering on the brink of a big drop.

They only dropped two spots for losing to UCLA a few weeks ago. That's partially because they hadn't had anything close to a bad loss before that point in the season, but mostly because four of the five teams ranked directly behind them also suffered losses that week.

But losing to Oregon during a week in which four of the five teams ranked directly behind them each had multiple impressive wins caused the Utes to tumble four spots to No. 13 this week.

If the AP poll was directly transferable to the selection committee seeding process, No. 13 would seem pretty harsh. Utah has 10 RPI Top 100 wins and no losses to teams outside the RPI Top 50. The only other teams in the country who can currently make that claim are Kentucky, Virginia and Kansas.

Granted, the Utes don't have many great wins—an overtime home win over Wichita State nearly three months ago is their only win against the RPI Top 45. However, if Gonzaga is in the discussion for a No. 1 seed with only one quality win, it's unfair to berate Utah for its lack of wins.

The Utes get a chance at redemption this weekend, though. Repaying Arizona for the 18-point loss in mid-January would be a huge boost for their projected seed stock.

Winner: Providence Friars

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It's hard to believe this is Providence's first appearance in the AP Top 25 this season, because it feels like the Friars have been hovering right around the cut line for more than a month.

Early losses to Boston College and Brown have been hurting their national perception all season long, but enough is enough and they were finally given the No. 25 spot this week.

This is a team with 10 wins against the RPI Top 70 and one of the most exciting duos in the country in Kris Dunn and LaDontae Henton.

Since those ugly losses, Dunn and Henton have combined to score at least 34 points in 17 of 18 games, but they haven't scored more than 44 in any of them. Individually, there's a little bit of fluctuation, but as a tandem, they have been a consistently outstanding pair of warriors.

The shame of the matter is that for finally cracking into the AP Top 25, the Friars are "rewarded" with a road game against Villanova on Tuesday night. They'll need more than just Dunn and Henton to pull off that upset.

Loser: Butler Bulldogs

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If you're curious what might happen to Louisville after losing one of its only reliable scorers for the season, perhaps we could allow Butler's current situation to serve as a case study.

Andrew Chrabascz is sidelined with a broken bone in his hand suffered on Valentine's Day. He was one of three Bulldogs scoring in double figures, and they have been painfully inefficient in two games without him.

Against Creighton—which has now lost 12 of its last 15 games—Butler trailed for most of the game before a couple of late and-ones put the Bulldogs in a position to win on a last-second shot.

Against Xavier, it was like they never even got off the bus. They trailed by 29 points in the final six minutes before making a number of meaningless shots to cut the final deficit to a more respectable but still ugly 17 points.

Even with Chrabascz, that was a potential loss waiting to happen, but the AP voters saw a blowout loss to a bubble team with 10 losses and dropped Butler four spots to No. 23.

The Bulldogs should be able to tread water for at least one more week without Chrabascz, as they get Marquette and DePaul in their next two games. Based on their 58- and 56-point efforts last week, though, anything could happen.

Winner: Iowa State Cyclones

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Iowa State jumped two spots in this week's poll to No. 12, but it's not hard to argue that the Cyclones deserved even better after one of the most impressive weeks in the country.

Road games against teams on the bubble are not fun—just ask Utah or Butler—and they had a pair of those landmines on their plate this past week.

They traveled to both Oklahoma State and Texas to face teams who were desperate to avoid falling below .500 in conference play while simultaneously picking up their 10th overall loss of the season. Had Iowa State lost both games, there probably wouldn't have been much of a penalty for it.

Instead, the Cyclones won both games in hard-fought fashion, clawing back from a late deficit to beat the Cowboys and clinging to a late lead to beat the Longhorns.

Jameel McKay was the most impressive player in those games. He only made two field goals between the two contests, but had a total of 20 points, 23 rebounds, seven blocks and four steals. He has been a monster in the paint since becoming eligible in late December and is still improving for a team that needs to be taken more seriously as a Final Four contender.

Loser: Ohio State Buckeyes

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After their second consecutive loss on the road against a school in Michigan, the Buckeyes have dropped to 8-6 in Big Ten play and seventh place in the conference standings.

As a nation, we've largely ignored the temptation to really dissect this tournament resume, but now that Ohio State is back outside the AP Top 25 with just three weeks left to play, we're not liking what we find.

The Buckeyes are 3-7 vs. the RPI Top 80. All three of those wins came at home against conference opponents. The one against Indiana was when the Hoosiers were without Hanner Mosquera-Perea and the one against Maryland occurred during the Terrapins' still ongoing stretch of getting blown out by remotely quality teams.

With a nonconference strength of schedule that currently ranks 235th in the country and an 0-6 record away from home against the RPI Top 95, Ohio State would be in some serious bubble trouble if it wasn't already impossible to find 68 teams worthy of a bid.

Still, the Buckeyes had better right the ship in a hurry. They have three straight against Nebraska, Purdue and Penn State—none of which would be big wins, but each of which could be a terrible loss if they aren't careful.

If they had just taken care of business against Michigan on Sunday, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And if they lose one of those three games, they'll have an even more pessimistic outlook. 

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