This week's Associated Press Poll has been released, and the Duke basketball program stayed put at No. 4 in the poll following a week that included an 80-71 victory on a neutral floor over No. 25 Arkansas. The Blue Devils began the toughest stretch of their grueling non-conference slate against the Razorbacks, and now have No. 15 Florida on deck at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night. Including the contest against Arkansas, the Blue Devils are in the midst of a five-game stretch that includes four games against ranked opponents. After Tuesday's date with the reigning national champs, Duke will head to East Lansing to face No. 7 Michigan State on Saturday, before taking on No. 19 Texas Tech at Madison Square Garden on December 20th. A buy game at home against Lipscomb is sandwiched into this stretch, which will take place on December 16th.
The Blue Devils have gotten out to an 8-0 start to a season for the first time in Jon Scheyer's tenure as head coach, and Cameron Boozer is starting to cement himself as the National Player of the Year frontrunner after a monster 35-point performance on Thanksgiving against the Razorbacks. Against a Florida frontcourt, which might be the best unit in the nation, this will assuredly be the toughest test yet for Boozer, and other guys will have to step up to generate points for Duke when the Gator bigs make life difficult down low.
Duke basketball stays put in AP Poll, only three ACC squads make Top 25
Duke is once again the highest-ranked team out of the ACC, followed by Louisville at No. 6. The only other program out of the ACC that made it into this week's Top 25 was North Carolina at No. 16.
NC State is the lone other ACC squad that's been featured in the AP Top 25 at all this season, climbing to No. 23 last week. However, after a 1-2 performance at the Maui Invitational that included losses to Seton Hall and Texas, the Wolfpack have dropped out.
Purdue and Arizona stayed put at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, but there was lots of movement around the Blue Devils as they stayed where they were. Michigan jumped four spots to No. 3 after a dominant stretch at the Players Era Festival, Michigan State jumped four spots to No. 7, and Iowa State moved up five spots to No. 10. Houston fell five spots to No. 8 following a loss to No. 13 Tennessee, and Alabama dropped four spots to No. 12.
The ACC/SEC Challenge could present major shakeups to next week's AP Poll with several marquee matchups. On Tuesday night, in addition to Duke vs. Florida, North Carolina will take on No. 18 Kentucky on the road in what is likely the best single day of college basketball up to this point in the season.