LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball moved up one spot in the newest edition of the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll following a week in which it won Sunday at home against Brown.
The now-No. 7 Jayhawks (9-2) were eighth in the rankings coming into this past week. They are comfortably inside the top 10. Moving forward, Kansas coach Bill Self’s squad will be able to enjoy a holiday break ahead of the start of Big 12 Conference play.
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The Jayhawks don’t play again until their Big 12 opener on Dec. 31 at home against West Virginia. Following that, they’ll have their Big 12 road opener Jan. 5 against UCF. While neither team was picked in the preseason to enjoy the same success Kansas was, both are capable of challenging the Jayhawks in the weeks ahead.
Kansas is not the highest ranked team in the Big 12 in this week’s poll, as Iowa State checks in at No. 3. Those two are the only two programs in the Big 12 in the top 10. Elsewhere in the top 25, the Big 12 has No. 12 Houston, No. 17 Cincinnati and No. 23 Baylor.
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: College basketball rankings: Kansas basketball’s place in coaches poll
