AP College Basketball Poll 2015: Complete Week 2 Rankings Released

The college basketball season didn't take long to get interesting. With a number of premier matchups and eye-opening upsets last week, the Associated Press Poll saw some big changes in Week 2. 

Let's break down the new poll and the week that was, as the Kentucky Wildcats ascended to the top of the rankings. 

Rankings

Rank	Team (1st-Place Votes)	Points	Record
1	Kentucky (59)	1,619	4-0
2	Maryland (6)	1,518	3-0
3	Michigan State	1,448	3-0
4	Iowa State	1,297	2-0
5	Kansas	1,243	1-1
6	Duke	1,238	4-1
7	Oklahoma	1,210	2-0
8	Villanova	1,153	4-0
9	North Carolina	1,141	3-1
10	Gonzaga	1,138	2-0
11	Arizona	970	4-0
12	Virginia	872	4-1
13	Indiana	846	3-0
14	California	746	3-0
15	Miami (Florida)	724	5-0
16	Purdue	550	5-0
17	Notre Dame	480	3-0
18	Connecticut	432	3-0
19	Vanderbilt	431	3-0
20	Wichita State	423	2-1
21	Oregon	369	4-0
22	LSU	285	3-0
23	Xavier	143	3-0
24	Cincinnati	110	4-0
25	Texas A&M	100	4-0

Analysis

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

There was always likely to be some movement in the rankings after a slew of surprising results in a crazy week of basketball. 

Wichita State got off to a poor start to the season, shockingly losing to Tulsa, 77-67. North Carolina was due for a tumble down the rankings after a surprising 71-67 loss to Northern Iowa on Saturday. Yes, the injury-related absence of Marcus Paige hurts the Tar Heels, but the top-ranked team in the nation last week expected to come away with a comfortable win against the Panthers. Instead, it came away with plenty of question marks.

Head coach Roy Williams felt he could provide at least one answer for the loss, telling reporters, "Very disappointed in me, more so than my team. We acted like a team that had not been coached very well out there. Made a lot of mistakes."

That, of course, is coach speak for, "My guys played horrible basketball but I'm not going to throw them under the bus, so blame me." It's good coaching. But it's also a reminder the Tar Heels probably aren't a title contender without Paige in the lineup, making his health a huge factor this season.

In general, the ACC provided some of the more interesting storylines of the week. While North Carolina disappointed, Miami blossomed, beating Mississippi State, Utah and Butler to win the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Suddenly, the Hurricanes look like real players in the conference.

As Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com noted, "The Hurricanes are deep. They're experienced (six upperclassmen). Shelden McClellan (19.8 PPG, 56 percent from the 3-point line) looks like a Wooden Award contender right now."

But he was also realistic, adding, "They enjoyed this hype after a win at Duke last season, too. That Miami team lost five of its next eight games and ended the year in the NIT. If the Hurricanes can manage a consistent effort and receive efficient performances from Rodriguez and McClellan, however, they'll be a serious threat in the ACC."

Then, there is the story of Grayson Allen and Duke. Allen has looked like the best player in college basketball early in the season, scoring over 30 points against both VCU and Georgetown in his last two games. That was a noted departure from his dismal performance against Kentucky earlier in the week, however, when he was held to just six points on 2-of-11 shooting. 

The Blue Devils lost that game to a very talented, very athletic Wildcats side, 74-63, which suggested perhaps Kentucky is currently the nation's top team. Even Allen was left impressed, telling reporters, "This is a very athletic, physical team. I think the bigs were a lot taller than the teams that we've played so far. They did a great job of rotating over. The guards did a great job at pressuring the ball. They played a great team-defensive game today."

The result also suggested, however, that Duke may need to rely heavily on Allen's scoring this season.

Thus far, he's mostly been up to the task. 

It's important to remember that, while these games are resume-builders for schools, the college basketball season is a long one, and much of what we think now will be debunked in a month or two. More times than not, a team doesn't show its true colors until it hits conference play. 

There will always be surprises. For more than a few schools, however, those surprises came just a bit too soon for comfort.