Winners and Losers of AP College Basketball Top 25 Poll in Week 16

After convincing wins over Temple and Butler last week, Villanova remained No. 1 in college basketball's Associated Press Top 25 for a third consecutive week—and is now just one week away from tying Michigan State for the longest tenure atop the poll this season.

Because of previous tournament failures and an ugly loss to Oklahoma in December, many were skeptical about the Wildcats' staying power. Villanova, however, has won 16 of its last 17 games, including seven in a row by double digits. It's done just enough to keep No. 2 Kansas at bay, as the Jayhawks have a seven-game winning streak of their own.

But it was another week of carnage beyond those top two teams. Former Nos. 3-6 (Oklahoma, Iowa, North Carolina and Maryland) each suffered a loss, and a couple of ranked teams suffered two losses apiece as the deck got shuffled once again.

Dayton and Providence dropped out of the AP Top 25, replaced by Texas A&M and Utah, but we've got plenty more on each of those teams in the following list of the poll's biggest winners and losers.

Winner: Texas A&M Aggies

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Few teams in the country needed a strong week more than Texas A&M did.

Once ranked as high as No. 5 in the nation, the Aggies lost five consecutive SEC games to fall out of last week's AP Top 25. Each of those losses was either forgivable or understandable, but the sheer number of them became an issue.

Just like that, the team heralded for most of January as the favorite to win the conference entered Saturday's home game against Kentucky as the unranked underdog, according to Odds Shark, despite having beaten Ole Miss by 15 points earlier in the week.

But Tyler Davis and Jalen Jones brought their A-games against the Wildcats.

Jones led all scorers with 24 points in the 79-77 overtime win, and he shot 4-of-8 from three-point range in his best performance in more than a month. Davis added 15 points and 12 rebounds and recorded more offensive rebounds (nine) than Kentucky's entire team (six).

The game ended in controversy, but it doesn't change the fact that the Aggies beat what had been one of the hottest teams in the country. There's no chance they'll climb as high in the AP Top 25 as they were three weeks ago, but Texas A&M's journey back to Final Four contender is underway after it jumped to No. 21 this week.

Loser: SMU Mustangs

Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports

The magical 18-0 start to the season feels like a lifetime ago. SMU has lost four of its last eight games and slipped to No. 24 in the latest AP Top 25.

As you probably recall, the Mustangs are ineligible for postseason play this year, but don't blame the latest loss on a lack of motivation.

They simply had no answer for Amida Brimah.

Connecticut's big man returned from a broken finger several weeks ago, but he had been a non-factor. In his first five games back, he had a combined 19 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks. In one game against SMU, though, he nearly matched those totals, putting up 16 points, eight rebounds and five blocks.

Moreover, he kept SMU's frontcourt under wraps. Normally one of the most efficient offenses in the nation, the Mustangs shot just 40 percent from inside the arc, as Jordan Tolbert and Markus Kennedy combined for 11 points on 17 field-goal attempts.

They'll get a rematch against the Huskies in early March, but we'll see whether either team will be ranked for that one.

Winner: Former No. 8 Teams

John Minchillo/Associated Press

Michigan State and Xavier tied for No. 8 in last week's AP Top 25, and they both rose this week, thanks in large part to losses suffered by the teams formerly ranked Nos. 3-6.

That isn't to say the Spartans and Musketeers were undeserving of the boost.

Far from it.

Xavier, in particular, really showed us something in further distancing itself from an ugly loss to Creighton on Feb. 9. Myles Davis' triple-double set the stage in an 11-point win over Providence, and the Musketeers won by 18 points at Georgetown by shooting 71.4 percent inside the arc and 93.5 percent from the free-throw line.

More noteworthy than the offensive outpouring was their defensive toughness. Just a couple of weeks removed from allowing St. John's and Marquette to score in the low 80s in back-to-back games, Xavier has now won three in a row while limiting the opposition to 67 points per game. When they're defending well, the Musketeers are very difficult to beat.

And when Denzel Valentine is playing well, Michigan State is even tougher to defeat. Even in a slow-paced, 69-57 win over Wisconsin on Thursday, Valentine put up ridiculous numbers once again: 24 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.

Oklahoma's Buddy Hield is still the favorite for the Wooden Award, but no one is playing better than Valentine over the past month. As long as either Bryn Forbes or Eron Harris shows up to play alongside him, the Spartans might be the favorites to win it all.

Michigan State didn't climb quite as high as Xavier did, though. The Musketeers jumped to No. 5 with the Spartans not far behind at No. 6.

Loser: Big 12

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Kansas has opened a two-game lead in the Big 12 standings, and Baylor had a great week that we'll look at further on the next slide.

The rest of the conference, however, didn't fare too well in this week's poll.

West Virginia only dropped from No. 10 to No. 14 after losing to Texas and Oklahoma for the second time each. What was disturbing about those losses, though, was the Mountaineers' inability to force turnovers. The Longhorns committed just seven, while the Sooners coughed the ball up only nine times, making Press Virginia look more like a slighting annoying gnat than its typical swarm of locusts.

But Texas and Oklahoma both lost their other game last week.

The Sooners—who have looked painfully mortal in shooting 30.5 percent from three-point range over their last five games—lost at Texas Tech in what was one of Buddy Hield's worst showings of the season. Oklahoma only dropped half a spot into a tie with Virginia for No. 3, but it's getting much tougher to rationalize buying stock in this team's national championship chances.

And on Saturday, the Longhorns were blown out at home by the Bears. The final margin (78-64) doesn't look too awful, but this was a 27-point game midway through the second half. Johnathan Motley and Taurean Prince did whatever they wanted to Texas, which has now lost three of four with home games against Oklahoma (Saturday) and Kansas (Feb. 29) coming up in the next seven days. It is just barely hanging on to a spot in the poll at No. 25 this week.

Iowa State also lost to Baylor, but that road loss in overtime was substantially more forgivable. Much of the national media have spent the past week wondering how Duke will be able to do anything in the NCAA tournament with such a short rotation, but did you know the Cyclones scored 183 points last week without getting a single point from their bench? Georges Niang (51 points) and Abdel Nader (50 points) had fantastic weeks, but we're starting to wonder just how much what is now the No. 17 team in the country will have left in the tank.

The biggest Big 12 loser of all, though, was the Red (Hot) Raiders. Texas Tech won four in a row to get to .500 in conference play, and it beat Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma during that stretch. But despite now boasting a solid resume, the Red Raiders didn't get much AP Top 25 love, totaling just 31 points.

Winner: Baylor Bears

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

Baylor entered the week 2-7 versus RPI top-50 teams, including losses in each of its last four tries—three of which came at home (Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech). The Bears had fallen to No. 25 in the AP Top 25 and were in legitimate danger of slipping into bubble trouble with five of their six remaining games coming against teams in the top half of the Big 12 standings.

But they eked out a home win over Iowa State before comfortably taking care of business at Texas to jump back to No. 19 and all but lock up a tournament bid.

With Rico Gathers sidelined by an illness against the Cyclones and coming off the bench against the Longhorns, Baylor's Johnathan Motley had just about the best week of anyone in the country.

The Big 12 saw fit to name him its Player of the Week.

The sophomore forward had 51 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks, shooting 22-of-30 from the field. He entered the week averaging just 19.3 minutes per game, but he is now notching 22.7 points and 10 rebounds per 40 minutes.

Taurean Prince and Lester Medford also played well last week, but there's no denying this was Motley's crew.

Loser: Atlantic 10

John Minchillo/Associated Press

The Atlantic 10 was one of our biggest winners last week, but Dayton and Saint Joseph's responded with a poor seven-day stretch.

They went head-to-head on Wednesday, with Saint Joseph's picking up a much-needed marquee win. DeAndre Bembry and Isaiah Miles had a combined line of 28 points, 25 rebounds and eight assists as the Hawks held serve at home to temporarily move into a tie for first place in the conference standings.

However, they followed it up with a disappointing loss to Davidson on one of those nights when the Wildcats simply couldn't miss. Jack Gibbs led the way with 35 points, and they shot 62.5 percent inside the arc and 47.6 percent beyond it in a 99-93 upset. Saint Joe's was on the verge of cracking last week's Top 25, but the net result of a week that featured both the best win and worst loss of its season was a drop from 57 points to just 20.

Dayton fell even harder, following the road loss to the Hawks with a home loss to St. Bonaventure. Normally one of the best defenses in the country, the Flyers dropped from No. 15 all the way to No. 26 (aka unranked) after giving up 79 points in consecutive games.

Though the conference had a rough week in the poll, Dayton's sharing of the wealth actually made the A-10 one of the biggest winners in the world of projected brackets. Joe Lunardi now has three A-10 teams (Dayton, Saint Joseph's and VCU) in the field as single-digit seeds, with another two (St. Bonaventure and George Washington) among his first four out.

Winner: Indiana Hoosiers

Rey Del Rio/Getty Images

It seems concerns about the Indiana defense and the team's ability to play away from home will forever abound, but this offense in Assembly Hall has been a thing of beauty all year long.

The Hoosiers averaged 124.6 points per 100 possessions last week as Nebraska and Purdue fruitlessly tried to slow them down. They shot a combined 55.7 percent inside the arc and 42.9 percent beyond it.

The rivalry game against the Boilermakers was particularly incredible, as the Hoosiers had three times as many made three-pointers (12) as turnovers (four). They also somehow limited A.J. Hammons to just one rebound and drew four fouls against the Purdue star in just 16 minutes of action.

Not only did Indiana jump from No. 22 to No. 18 in this week's AP Top 25, but it is also now half a game ahead of Iowa for first place in the Big Ten with a head-to-head battle on March 1 looming large.

Things are so good in Bloomington right now that even Tom Crean's job feels safe for the first time in years, as Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star observed after the Hoosiers' latest win:

"

Crean stopped one last time to point to the student section above the exit. The students have been the hardest on Crean over the years, occasionally booing his name during pregame introductions, but that's the past. The present? The IU bros above the tunnel—wearing bright red shirts that said "Beat Purdue"—pointed back at Crean. Two of them started genuflecting, waving their arms up and down, up and down.

"

Loser: Miami at North Carolina

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

Without fail, the national media overreact to the result when Duke and North Carolina square off.

The Tar Heels had an impressive week. They absolutely slaughtered Miami on Saturday and were clearly the better team for most of Wednesday night's game against the Blue Devils, finishing plus-15 on the glass with 29 made two-point attempts and seven blocks. But an inability to make three-pointers and a dumbfounding insistence on continuing to attempt them led to their downfall in a 74-73 home loss.

But apparently AP voters really honed in on that loss, because North Carolina fell two spots to No. 7 despite blowing out a team that was on the cusp of a projected No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

The biggest problem we have here is the double standard. Just one week ago, Oklahoma lost at home to Kansas and needed some late heroics to win a home game against Texas, and the Sooners' point total dropped by just one, from 1,472 to 1,471. Why in the world did the Tar Heels lose 102 points for a close loss to a title contender and a blowout win over a title contender?

And it's not like the voters forgot about Saturday's game between North Carolina and Miami, because they made sure to drop the Hurricanes one spot to No. 12, even though the teams previously ranked Nos. 10, 13, 14 and 15 combined to suffer six losses last week.

There's no denying there's an East Coast bias in college basketball, but it didn't do UNC or Miami any good this week.

Winner: Pac-12

Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlantic 10 and Big 12 both struggled last week, and the Pac-12 was there to reap the benefits.

Arizona eviscerated in-state rival Arizona State by 38 points, extending its winning streak to six games and climbing to No. 9 in this week's AP Top 25. Mostly healthy for the first time all season, the Wildcats are one of the deepest teams in the country. For the second straight game, eight players scored at least five points.

Meanwhile, Oregon bounced back from last week's disappointing road trip through California with an in-state rivalry win of its own, dropping 91 points on Oregon State on Saturday night. Despite facing perhaps the best perimeter defender in the nation (Gary Payton II), the Ducks' starting backcourt didn't commit a single turnover in the victory. Oregon jumped three spots to No. 13.

But it was Utah that stole the show, winning road games against UCLA and USC to remain in the hunt for the conference title. Jakob Poeltl had a double-double in both games and completely shut down the opposing frontcourts. During the Utes' current four-game winning streak, Poeltl has averaged 23 points, 10 rebounds and two steals while shooting 74.1 percent from the field. When he stays out of foul trouble, the sky is the limit for this team.

Utah jumped back into this week's rankings at No. 22, and California came relatively close to crashing the party, as well. After much-needed road wins over Washington and Washington State, the Golden Bears picked up 34 votes for their five-game winning streak. If they can improve to 18-0 at home this season with wins over UCLA and USC this week, they'll almost certainly be back in the Top 25 for the first time since November.

Loser: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

The nation's most efficient offense picked a brutal time to go ice-cold, scoring just two points in the final four minutes, 42 seconds against Georgia Tech on Saturday to turn a six-point lead into a one-point loss.

It wasn't a surprising loss by any means. The Ramblin' Wreck may have entered the game at just 14-12, but McCamish Pavilion is a tough place to play. The Yellow Jackets have won home games against Virginia and VCU this season and came within a couple of possessions of knocking off Miami, Louisville and Duke.

Moreover, the expected pace of the game didn't bode well for the Fighting Irish. After scoring a season-low 62 points in Saturday's 60-possession affair, Notre Dame is now 4-6 in games of fewer than 65 possessions.

But the AP voters didn't see it as an understandable happenstance. They saw a loss to a team that was 4-9 in ACC play and dropped the hammer, bumping the Fighting Irish from No. 19 to No. 23 in advance of road games against Wake Forest and Florida State.

Quite the harsh punishment for a team that entered the week with three consecutive wins over North Carolina, Clemson and Louisville, but such is life for a quality team that has had trouble stringing together lengthy winning streaks this season.

Advanced stats courtesy of KenPom.com.

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