Nevada No. 6 in AP; moves up to No. 5 in coaches poll

NEW YORK — Duke remains atop an AP Top 25 poll with few major changes after a light Christmas week schedule of games.

The Blue Devils earned 35 of 64 first-place votes to stay at No. 1 for the second straight week and fourth week this season, while the top 12 remained in unchanged in the latest poll on Monday.

Duke (11-1) hasn’t played since beating No. 11 Texas Tech in New York on Dec. 20, making the Blue Devils one of five ranked teams to be off through the holiday week. That schedule featured no matchups between ranked teams to limit potential movement in the poll, though that figures to change with conference play set to get rolling this week.

There was a top tier to the poll voting, too. Second-ranked Michigan earned nine first-place votes, while No. 3 Tennessee earned 12. Fourth-ranked Virginia and fifth-ranked Kansas each earned four votes.

Nevada remained No. 6 in the AP poll and moved up to No. 5 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. It’s the highest ranking for the Wolf Pack in the history of the USA Today Coaches poll.

Kentucky was the highest-ranked climber, rising three spots to No. 13 after a win at rival Louisville — which marked the Wildcats’ third straight win against power-conference opponents. No. 19 Houston also rose three spots.

Five teams rose two spots: No. 16 Marquette, No. 17 Mississippi State, No. 18 North Carolina State, No. 21 Indiana and No. 23 Oklahoma.

No. 22 Wisconsin had the biggest slide of the week among ranked teams, falling seven spots after losing at home to Western Kentucky. And Arizona State fell out from No. 17 after a home loss to Princeton, which came a week after the Sun Devils beat then-No. 1 Kansas.

Nebraska was the lone addition at No. 24, continuing the Cornhuskers’ in-and-out ways. They made their first poll appearance of the season at No. 24 on Dec. 3, fell out for a week, re-entered at No. 25, then fell out of last week’s poll.