Cats close regular season at No. 2

They finished the Southeastern Conference as the No. 1 team, but they finished the regular season as the No. 2 team in the Associated Press top 25.

After defeating Georgia in Athens, Ga., on Wednesday night, the Cats (29-2, 14-2 SEC) closed out the regular season on Senior Day with a 74-66 win over Florida to cap off an 18-0 record at home.

UK received two first-place votes.

Kansas (29-2) regained the No. 1 ranking after losing it one week prior. The Jayhawks defeated Kansas State and Missouri last week.

The nation’s previous No. 1 team, Syracuse (28-3) , dropped to No. 3 in the polls. The Orange lost to Louisville in the Cardinals’ final home game at Freedom Hall before moving to their new arena next season. Two of the Orange’s three losses this season came to the Cards.

Duke (26-5) stayed at No. 4 despite the Blue Devils losing to Maryland on the road Wednesday evening. Duke likely saved themselves by pummeling rival-North Carolina by 32 at home on Saturday.

Coming in at No. 5 this week is National Player of the Year candidate Evan Turner and the Ohio State Buckeyes (24-7). Though the Buckeyes only played one game last week, a 73-57 win over Illinois, previous No. 5 Kansas State lost twice.

Purdue (26-4), sans forward Robbie Hummel, moved up one spot to No. 6 in the polls, West Virginia (24-6) moved up three spots to No. 7, and New Mexico (28-3) held steady at No. 8 in this week’s poll.

In the falling category, Kansas State (24-6) dropped four spots to No. 9 after losing to Kansas and Iowa State last week, while Villanova (24-6) fell two spots to round out the top 10 after losing at home to West Virginia.

Again, the SEC got only three teams in the AP top 25. Joining UK in the rankings are Tennessee (23-7) and Vanderbilt (23-7). Tennessee is No. 15 this week and Vanderbilt fell to No. 20 after losing on Saturday to South Carolina.