Associated Press: Top 25 basketball: Kansas still No. 1; Syracuse on the rise

Kansas was the runaway No. 1 pick in The Associated Press' college basketball poll Monday, just as it has been each week since the season began last month.

Kansas State and New Mexico entered the rankings this week. The Wildcats joined the poll for the first time since the 2007-08 season, a drought dwarfed by the Lobos, whose previous appearance in the Top 25 was in March 1999.

The Jayhawks (9-0), who easily beat Radford and La Salle last week, received 61 first-place votes from the national media panel and were well ahead of Texas (8-0), which received one first-place vote and was No. 2 for the third straight week.

Michael Rothstein’s take: If you followed the live chat last Wednesday (Plug: The chat is moving to noon Thursday this week in advance of the Kansas game), you saw where I said if Syracuse beat Florida, I’d bump the Orange to No. 2.

Syracuse won, and that’s what I’ve done. The Orange have yet to have a team come within single digits of them in a game that counts, which makes you wonder how good Le Moyne is.

Among the other big movers this week were Ohio State and Washington falling out of the poll and Mississippi making an overdue first appearance at No. 15.

The two biggest questions I’m anticipating are, why is Memphis so high and why rank St. John’s at all? As far as Memphis, the Tigers have beaten everyone they’ve played except Kansas, and they played the Jayhawks the toughest of any team to date. Plus, Josh Pastner’s crew keeps winning.

As far as St. John’s, there’s usually a team that people doubt and then in mid-January, has just one or two losses. I get the feeling this is the year for St. John’s. Plus, St. John’s played well and hung around with Duke in what was a big test for Norm Roberts’ crew.