Villanova's 40-point victory over the Monmouth Hawks last Wednesday night was more than enough to keep them locked in to the No. 8 spot of the Associated Press' latest Top 25 rankings. There was little movement amongst the top 10 teams as Georgetown and Missouri switched spots from last week and are now ranked No. 9 and No. 10 respectively.
Texas A&M jumped from No. 25 to No. 18 after after an 86-51 victory over Wagner on Dec. 21. Some other big gainers include the University of Central Florida, who moved up to No. 19 from No. 25, Brigham Young University from No. 23 to No. 16 and Notre Dame from No. 22 to No. 15.
Baylor (No. 15), Tennessee (No. 19) and Florida (No. 20) all dropped out of the Top 25 which paved the way for Temple to reappear at No. 25. Thursday night's game against Villanova will make or break their stay in the national rankings - a loss and they will be dropped rather unceremoniously but a win could give them a significant boost.
Here is the full AP Top 25:
1 Duke (65 first-place votes)
2 Ohio State
3 Kansas
4 Connecticut
5 Syracuse
6 Pittsburgh
7 San Diego State
8 Villanova
9 Georgetown
10 Missouri
11 Kentucky
12 Purdue
13 Texas
14 Minnesota
15 Notre Dame
16 Brigham Young
17 Kansas State
18 Texas A&M
19 UCF
20 Michigan State
21 Memphis
22 Louisville
23 Illinois
24 Vanderbilt
25 Temple