After a pair of Big 12 Conference wins last week, including a road victory, West Virginia moved up four spots in the new Associated Press Top 25 rankings that were released today. The Mountaineers jumped from No. 13 to No. 9.

 

WVU, 20-5, avenged an earlier home loss by beating Oklahoma in Norman by a 61-50 score last Wednesday. West Virginia then came home Saturday and upended another team that had topped them earlier this year by beating Kansas State 85-66 at the Coliseum.

 

The ranking means that WVU’s game this evening with Kansas will be a battle of top 10 ranked teams. The Jayhawks, at 22-3, remained No. 3 in the country with one of those losses coming Jan. 24 against WVU in Morgantown by an 85-69 score – easily Kansas’ worst of the season. The Jayhawks will look for revenge tonight in Lawrence at the Allen Fieldhouse at 9 p.m.

 

Gonzaga, unbeaten at 26-0, remains No. 1 in the poll with 60 of the 65 first place votes. Villanova, who has the remaining five first place votes, is No. 2 at 24-2. Baylor (22-3) is No. 4, while Arizona at 23-3 is No. 5.

 

Only Louisville, at 20-5, is ranked ahead of WVU with five losses. The Cards come in at No. 8. The rest of the top 10 includes No. 6 UCLA (23-3), No. 7 Oregon (22-4) and No. 10 North Carolina (21-5).

 

No other Big 12 teams are listed in the top 25. Oklahoma State, however is in the “others receiving votes” portion of the poll.