Ohio State, Kansas and Duke were the only teams ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll this season, and they were among nine teams in the Top 25 from start to finish.
Ohio State (32-2), the overall No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament, led the poll for the third straight week and eighth overall. The Big Ten regular-season and tournament champions received 51 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel Monday.
Kansas (32-2) was No. 1 for one week this season. The Jayhawks, which won both Big 12 titles, drew the other 14 first-place votes and were second for the third straight week.
Duke (30-4) spent the most time at No. 1 this season. The Blue Devils, who won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, were first in the preseason poll and for 10 weeks during the season. They jumped from fifth, their lowest ranking of the season, to third in the final poll
Pittsburgh, the Big East regular-season champion, dropped from third to fourth in the final poll. Notre Dame, San Diego State, North Carolina, Texas, Connecticut and BYU rounded out the top 10.
Kentucky was No. 11, followed by Syracuse, Purdue, Louisville, Florida, Wisconsin, Arizona, St. John’s, Utah State and Xavier. The last five ranked teams were Kansas State, West Virginia, Washington, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.
Washington, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt all returned to the poll this week, replacing Georgetown, Temple and Cincinnati.
Nine teams were ranked in every poll this season — Duke, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Kansas, Syracuse, Kentucky, Purdue, BYU and San Diego State — while Georgetown missed by one point of joining the group.
The Hoyas were ranked in every poll except the last and they were 26th in that one, one point behind No. 25 Vanderbilt.
Duke has the longest run of consecutive appearances, having been in every poll since the preseason Top 25 of 2007-08. Purdue has the second-longest streak, starting with the final seven polls of 2007-08.
There were three one-week wonders this season: Georgia (No. 24), Saint Mary’s (No. 22) and Florida State (No. 22) were all ranked for just one poll. Virginia Tech, the object of much discussion after being left out of the NCAA tournament’s field of 68, was ranked in the preseason poll (No. 21) and for the first voting of the regular season (22).
Forty-four teams from 12 conferences were ranked this season.
The Big East had 10 of its 16 members ranked during the season and tied its own record with nine teams in the same poll twice. The Big East had nine teams ranked for one week in January 2009 as well.
The Big Ten and Big 12 both had six teams ranked at some point this season, while the Southeastern Conference had five and the Atlantic Coast Conference four. The Mountain West had three teams in the Top 25, the West Coast Conference, Pac-10, Conference USA and Atlantic 10 had two and the Horizon League and Western Athletic Conference one each.