For the fourth consecutive week, the Duke Blue Devils top the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Duke (8-0), is fresh off a clean sweep of the motion bracket of the PK80 in Portland, with wins over Portland State, Texas and Florida. And although the Blue Devils had to mount comebacks of 16 and 17 points against the Longhorns and Gators in each of their last two games, respectively, they continue to overcome in-game adversity and have shown the mettle of a title team early. Duke, which received all 65 first-place votes, could be 6-2 as easily as its 8-0. But with Marvin Bagley III emerging as an early player of the year candidate, it's looking like the Blue Devils will continue to be a tough out all season.
The biggest mover in the AP poll this week is Arizona, which fell from No. 2 to completely unranked after a disappointing 0-3 outing at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Sean Miller's Wildcats fell to unranked foes NC State and SMU before No. 20 Purdue dispatched them from the Bahamas winless and breaks a streak of 100 consecutive appearances in the AP rankings by Arizona.
Outside the top two in Duke and Kansas, the top 10 of the USA Today Coaches Poll has a completely new look thanks to some curveball results on the hardwood this past week.
As far as results go, nothing was more surprising than former No. 4 Arizona dropping three-straight at the Battle 4 Atlantis. The Wildcats fell to two unranked opponents in the Bahamas, and Purdue sent them packing winless with an 89-64 defeat, causing them to plummet from the top 4 to unranked in just a one week span.
As a result, Michigan State and Notre Dame moved up in the top 5. Florida, Kentucky, Cincinnati and Texas A&M all moved up in the top 10 as well, while Wichita State, North Carolina and Southern California dropped.
Duke, a consensus No. 1 team in the Associated Press top 25, garnered all but one first place vote after improving to 8-0 on the season Sunday evening with a come-from-behind win over No. 7 Florida. The Blue Devils were forced to overcome two double digit deficits in each of their last two games, but came out unscathed with a perfect 3-0 record in the PK80 Motion bracket in Portland.
>>Tiger Woods To Return With This Weekend's Hero World Challenge
Tiger Woods will make his return at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas this week and he will be paired with Justin Thomas to kick things off on Thursday. It's one of several fascinating pairings in Round 1 on Thursday.
Others include Patrick Reed and Daniel Berger, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka and Matt Kuchar and Jordan Spieth. This is as good of a field as this tournament has ever had with eight of the top 10 players in the world in attendance (only Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy are not there).
Matsuyama is the defending champion as he beat Stenson by two at this course last year.
