AP College Basketball Poll 2016: Complete Week 8 Rankings Released

An eventful week in college basketball has led to some shakeups in the latest Associated Press Top 25 rankings, though Villanova, UCLA, Kansas, Baylor and Duke occupy the first five spots for the fourth straight time.  

Villanova has been a near-unanimous No. 1 for four weeks now, collecting 56 out of a possible 65 first-place votes in Week 8. The defending national champions will open Big East play this week, with a huge showdown against No. 10 Creighton on New Year's Eve looming large. 

Here's a full look at the Top 25 for Week 8, per AP.org:

Rank	Team (1st-Place Votes)	Record
1	Villanova (56)	12-0
2	UCLA (3)	13-0
3	Kansas	11-1
4	Baylor (6)	12-0
5	Duke	12-1
6	Louisville	11-1
7	Gonzaga	12-0
8	Kentucky	10-2
9	North Carolina	11-2
10	Creighton	12-0
11	West Virginia	11-1
12	Virginia	10-1
13	Butler	11-1
14	Wisconsin	11-2
15	Purdue	11-2
16	Indiana	10-2
17	Xavier	10-2
18	Arizona	11-2
19	St. Mary's	10-1
20	Florida State	12-1
21	Oregon	11-2
22	USC	13-0
23	Cincinnati	10-2
24	Notre Dame	10-2
25	Florida	9-3

Duke's Grayson Allen was the sport's dominant story last week. He was indefinitely suspended by the team after tripping Elon player Steven Santa Ana, marking the third time the Blue Devils star has been involved in such an incident.

Allen's punishment didn't affect Duke's spot in the standings this week. The Blue Devils only play once, at Virginia Tech on New Year's Eve, but that will be the first chance to gauge how well the team adjusts to his absence for the time being. 

The first major change in this week's rankings came at No. 6 after Kentucky lost on the road at Louisville. It was a close 73-70 score that went in the Cardinals' favor, giving head coach Rick Pitino's team a bump to the sixth spot and droping Kentucky two spots to No. 8.

Louisville star Quentin Snider, who scored a game-high 22 points in the win, noted he had been thinking of Kentucky for an entire year. 

"This was pretty big," Snider said, per the AP (via ESPN.com). "Last year's performance kind of carried into my mind the whole season, so I was waiting for this game. This was kind of a revenge game."

Last year, it was Kentucky eking out a 75-73 win by holding Louisvile scoreless over the final 99 seconds of game time. 

It's hard to punish the Wildcats too much for their defeat, especially since it came just four days after that memorable 103-100 win against North Carolina. Kentucky and Louisville figure to make deep runs in the NCAA tournament, making Wednesday's game a thrilling preview of what's to come. 

A sleeper team that continues to rise up the ranks is USC, which moved one spot to No. 22 after adding three more wins for a 13-0 start. 

Per Joey Kaufman of the Orange County Register, the Trojans have already done something this season that had only been accomplished four other times in program history:

USC's strength of schedule ranks 119th in the nation, per ESPN.com. Getting into Pac-12 play will provide a better snapshot of just how good this team is, with Friday's game against No. 21 Oregon being the Trojans' first game against a ranked opponent this season.

The meat of this year's college basketball season officially kicks off this week with conference play starting. There have been great stories to this point, like USC and No. 20 Florida State, but the next two months will separate the wheat from the chaff.