Duke basketball slides in rankings after major shakeup

The Duke basketball team slid in the rankings following its first loss.

Preseason ranking mean very little in this era of the transfer portal in college basketball but the Duke basketball team, which was ranked No. 2 in the Preseason Associated Press Top-25 Poll, is barely hanging on in the Top-10 after its loss to Arizona.

The Blue Devils slid to No. 9 in the nation as the first poll of the regular season was announced on Monday afternoon.

Arizona rose to No. 3 after its victory inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, the largest rise of any time inside the Top-25 this week.

Duke’s 7-spot drop, however, was not the furthest a team suffered as Michigan State plummeted 14 spots from No. 4 to No. 18 after the Spartans lost on opening night to James Madison, who debut at No. 24 in the rankings this week.

ALSO READ: Duke not playing ‘winning basketball’ in critical stretch

Ironically, the Blue Devils (1-1) will play Michigan State (1-1) on Tuesday night (7:00p.m. ET, ESPN) in the Champions Classic in Chicago.

Kansas, who will play No. 17 Kentucky in the second game of the Champions Classic doubleheader, remained the No. 1 team in the nation while Purdue took the No. 2 ranking, which was previously held by the Blue Devils.

Duke basketball in midst of elite teams throughout the country

Marquette, UConn, Houston, Tennessee, and Creighton are looking up at Arizona while Florida Atlantic rounds out the Top-10 one spot behind the Blue Devils.

Baylor and Arkansas are other two major non-conference games remaining on Duke’s schedule and both program are inside the Top-15 at No. 14 and No. 15, respectively.

ALSO READ: Jon Scheyer takes blame for loss to Arizona

Including Duke, there are just three teams from the ACC ranked in the Top-25 with No. 12 Miami and No. 20 North Carolina.

The Blue Devils will also play Bucknell this week on Friday night (6:00p.m. ET, ACC Network) in the first game of the Blue Devil Challenge in addition to Michigan State on Tuesday evening.