Duke basketball reaches milestone with latest ranking

Once again, the Duke basketball program boasts a squad inside the top five.

In light of a 5-0 start to the 2021-22 Duke basketball campaign, the team ranks No. 5 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll, which came out on Monday. Now, the Duke Blue Devils will have a chance to perhaps move into the top spot next week if they should remain undefeated after hosting The Citadel on Monday night and then facing No. 1 Gonzaga in Las Vegas on Friday night.

The three teams sandwiched between Gonzaga and Duke are No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Purdue, and No. 4 Kansas.

Worth noting, the Blue Devils are the only remaining ranked bunch in the ACC following UNC’s drop from No. 18 to unranked due to its consecutive losses to Purdue and now-No. 15 Tennessee over the weekend.

A Duke basketball milestone ranking

According to Duke basketball’s official Twitter account, this is the 700th week that the Blue Devils, who began this season at No. 9, have been among the top 10 in an AP Poll. That tally trails only the Kentucky Wildcats, whose No. 10 ranking this week marks their program’s 715th all-time appearance inside the top 10.

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As for Mike Krzyzewski’s 42-year tenure in Durham, this is the 559th time one of his Duke teams has been inside the top 10. No other program has been inside the top 10 more than 500 times during this span; Kansas has the second-most such appearances in the Coach K era with 471.

The last time Duke sat inside the top five was in January 2020.

Last season’s Blue Devils, who finished a disappointing 13-11 and well outside the AP Top 25, reached as high as No. 6 in late November before the program’s uncharacteristic frequent losses began to pile up quickly.