Duke falls out of AP Top 25 basketball poll, while Wolfpack on verge of being ranked

If, before the season, you believed N.C. State would be drawing more interest from Associated Press voters among the three triangle schools ... stop lying.

It’s not that the rise of the Wolfpack is unbelievable — it’s overtime win over Miami on Saturday was the Pack’s second against a ranked team. It’s that N.C. State’s rise coincided with the precipitous fall of both North Carolina and Duke, not just out of the top 10, but completely out of the polls.

N.C. State’s wins over Duke and Miami over the past two weeks have it on the precipice of being ranked. The Pack finished with 111 votes — after getting just four votes last week — and barely missed out behind Arkansas at No. 25 with 115 votes.

The last time the Pack were ranked was the poll that came out the week of Jan. 28, 2019, when they were No. 23. They were ranked for six weeks that season.

Highest rise

Auburn jumped up five spots to No. 16, after a pair of wins over Mississippi and Mississippi State, mainly due to teams that lost in front of it. Marquette also rose five spots top No. 20, despite losing at Xavier on Sunday, after beat Connecticut on Wednesday.

Biggest drop

What in the world happened to UConn? The Huskies went from straight embarrassing teams with double digit wins in their first 13 games to start the season; to now losing four of their past five games.

That included Sunday’s 85-74 home loss to St. John’s to fall to 4-4 in the Big East Conference. UConn dropped from sixth down to No. 15.

This season is more and more shaping up for Arkansas as one of those Razorback fans will look back at what could have been. Injuries to two of their best players have led them to fall apart and now there’s even questions surrounding if Nick Smith Jr., a projected lottery pick in the NBA draft, will even shut things down to not risk further injury.

The Razorbacks dropped 10 spots from No. 15 to barely hanging on at No. 25 after losses to Alabama and Vanderbilt this week.

Welcome to the Top 25

Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May has the Owls on a 15-game win streak, which is second nationally only to College of Charleston’s 16 game streak. I had a discussion with him over the summer about name, image and likeness (NIL), and how some schools were skirting the rules to poach players from schools like FAU.

May told me about one of his best players being offered deals that he turned down to stay at FAU. That’s why May believed that they were potentially headed for a special season and it certainly is playing out that way so far and they made their debut at No. 24.

Clemson made its debut in the polls at No. 19 despite having lost to both South Carolina and Loyola Chicago, which are Quad 4 stains on its NCAA Net ranking resume. The Tigers are currently in first place in the ACC, off to their first 7-0 start in program history.

Baylor and Rutgers rejoined the poll at No. 21 and 23, respectively.

Outta here

Duke’s loss at Clemson sealed its way out of the top 25. The Blue Devils received just 24 votes this week after being ranked No. 25 last week. It’s the first time Duke hasn’t been ranked since the 2020-21 season when it dropped out after the week of Jan. 11, 2021 poll.

Wisconsin, Missouri and San Diego State all lost their way out of the polls this week.

AP Top 25

C.L. Brown’s ballot

This story was originally published January 16, 2023 at 8:34 AM.

C.L. Brown

The News & Observer

C.L. Brown covers the University of North Carolina for The News & Observer. Brown brings more than two decades of reporting experience including stints as the beat writer on Indiana University and the University of Louisville. After a long stay at the Louisville Courier-Journal, where he earned an APSE award, he’s had stops at ESPN.com, The Athletic and even tried his hand at running his own website, clbrownhoops.com.