AP College Basketball Poll 2017: Complete Week 12 Rankings Released

A week ago, Villanova surprisingly leapfrogged Kansas to retake the throne atop college basketball. Two strong wins later, and the Wildcats have extended their slight lead. 

Villanova remains the nation's top-ranked team in the latest Associated Press poll, sitting 19 rankings points ahead of the second-ranked Jayhawks. Kansas, which has won 18 straight games, is followed by Gonzaga, Kentucky and Baylor to round out the Top Five. 

Here is a look at how the entire Top 25 played out:

Ranking	Team (First-Place Votes)
1	Villanova (35)
2	Kansas (28)
3	Gonzaga (2)
4	Kentucky
5	Baylor
6	Florida State
7	Arizona
8	UCLA
9	North Carolina
10	Oregon
11	Butler
12	Virginia
13	Louisville
14	Notre Dame
15	Wisconsin
16	Creighton
17	Duke
18	West Virginia
19	Cincinnati
20	Purdue
21	Saint Mary's (Cal.)
22	Maryland
23	South Carolina
24	Xavier
25	Florida

UCLA, with three first-place votes last week, dropped to No. 8 following a 96-85 loss to Arizona. The Wildcats were finally back at full strength after guard Allonzo Trier returned from his performance-enhancing-drug suspension and looked dominant offensively in their trip to Westwood. Trier scored 12 points off the bench and was one of six Arizona players in double figures.

Kobi Simmons finished with 20 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Lauri Markkanen added 18 points and seven rebounds. The Wildcats, who moved up seven spots to No. 7, shot 50 percent from the floor and knocked down nine of their 20 three-point attempts.

"It's a big win. It means a lot them being ranked No. 3," Markkanen told the AP, via ESPN.com. "We knew their transition offense was really tough. We focused on getting back after crashing the offensive glass. It worked extremely well at times."

Defensive woes were also at the center of Creighton's upset loss to unranked Marquette. The Eagles, who entered just 3-3 in conference play, shot an eye-opening 60 percent from the floor in their 102-94 win. All five Marquette starters were in double figures, and Katin Reinhardt scored 21 points off the bench.

Creighton's defense allowed a near-constant barrage of open shots, many created by simple dribble-drives to the basket. Only 14 of Marquette's 36 field goals came via an assist, and the Eagles still managed to knock down 12 shots from three-point range.

The loss resulted in a wasted 30-point effort from Marcus Foster and a solid 17-point, eight-assist outing by freshman Davion Mintz. Creighton was playing its first game without Maurice Watson Jr., its senior point guard who will miss the remainder of the season due to an ACL injury.

"My heart goes out to Mo Watson," Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski told the AP, via ESPN.com. "Seeing him before the game and in the anthem line and then in the handshake line, you never want a terrific player and competitor to have his career ended with the unfortunate circumstances that they are. Obviously, not having him changes their team."

The team observed the emotional scene before the game:

A week after reaching its season peak in an upset win over then-No. 1 Baylor, West Virginia hit a low point over the last seven days. The Mountaineers were subject to perhaps the biggest upset loss of the season last Wednesday, as a struggling Oklahoma team went on the road and earned an 89-87 victory in Morgantown.

Jordan Woodard hit a layup with 2.2 seconds remaining in overtime for the Sooners, who dropped four of their first five Big 12 games. Woodard finished with a team-high 20 points and helped guide the offense against West Virginia's turnover-happy press.

Three days later, Kansas State handed Bob Huggins and Co. its second straight shocking defeat. The unranked Wildcats had all five starters in double figures, all scoring between 13 and 15 points, while knocking down half of their shots in a 79-75 win. West Virginia's starting five shot 11-of-34 from the field, and the team needed a 20-point night from Tarik Phillip off the bench just to stay in the game.

The Mountaineers also turned the ball over 23 times.

"We just threw it away. What kills you is unforced turnovers," Huggins said, per Andrew Hammond of the AP, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It’s one that you are forced to play at a pace you cannot play, or you will have guys with the ball that do not know what to do with the ball. The unforced ones absolutely kill you."

West Virginia and Florida were the only Top 25 teams to go 0-2 over the last seven days. The Gators barely hang on to the No. 25 ranking after their offense stalled in consecutive losses to South Carolina and Vanderbilt. The two defeats came by a combined six points, with Vanderbilt snapping a four-game losing streak on its trip to Gainesville.

Florida State had perhaps the most impressive week of any team in the nation, protecting home court for close wins over Louisville and Notre Dame. The Seminoles showed no ill effects of their road loss to North Carolina and now look like a real threat for a regular-season ACC crown with five straight upcoming games against unranked opponents.

No teams moved in or out of the AP poll this week.