Tennessee stays No. 1 for 2nd week in AP Top 25 poll

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Tennessee handled its first week at No. 1 in more than a decade well enough to stay on its AP Top 25 perch.

The Volunteers received 48 of 64 first-place votes in Monday’s poll to extend the program’s first stint at No. 1 since February 2008. Tennessee (18-1, 6-0 Southeastern Conference) has won 14 straight games — the program’s longest run since the 1922-23 season and one shy of the school record — since suffering a neutral-court loss to Kansas in November.

“To be quite honest with you, I talked to them about (how) it’s new to them,” Volunteers coach Rick Barnes said of the No. 1 ranking after Saturday’s victory against West Virginia . “They’ve earned it, but they can’t forget what got them where they are.

“Is there more noise around them? Obviously, it is. But they’ve got to be mature enough to deal with that.”

STATUS QUO

The top six teams in the poll remained unchanged, with Duke sitting at No. 2, followed by Virginia, Gonzaga, Michigan and Michigan State. The Spartans stayed put despite suffering their first Big Ten loss at Purdue in a game that helped lift the Boilermakers back into the poll.