Duke Basketball: Blue Devils remain at No. 2 in AP Poll prior to ND game

Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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The Duke Basketball team remains as the No. 2 team in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll after two victories last week.

With wins over Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech, the Duke Blue Devils will remain at No. 2 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll this week with a game tonight in South Bend against Notre Dame and Saturday back in Durham against St. John’s.

The Top-6 team in the poll remained unchanged, with Tennessee leading the way at No. 1 followed by Duke, Virginia, Gonzaga, Michigan, and Michigan State, despite No. 6 Michigan State’s loss on Sunday to Purdue.

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Despite being the No. 1 team, it hasn’t been easy for the Tennessee Volunteers as the team need a controversial flagrant one foul towards the end of regulation against Tennessee to aid them in getting the game into overtime and finding a way to win. That game was followed by a victory at home over West Virginia in which the Vols were down 24-15 in the first half, but used a 24-2 run to end the first half to pull away from the Mountaineers.

At 18-1 Tennessee received 48 first place votes, while Duke received 12 and Virginia received four despite losing to the Blue Devils last Saturday who were without Tre Jones.

Aside from Duke and Virginia other ACC teams that are ranked inside the AP Top 25 Poll are No. 9 North Carolina, No. 12 Virginia Tech, No. 15 Louisville, No. 23 North Carolina State, and No. 25 Florida State.

Syracuse was the only other ACC team to received votes to be included in the Top 25 as the Orange received three votes. In comparison, the No. 25 Seminoles received 141 votes.

It is a quick turn around for the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils as the team is in South Bend to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Monday at 7:00 pm, but the Blue Devils will not play again until Saturday as a mid-season non-conference game is scheduled at Cameron Indoor Stadium against the St. John’s Red Storm at 12:00 pm ET.

Both games can be seen on ESPN.