Duke is back in a familiar place — No. 1.
The Blue Devils advanced one spot to replace Indiana at the top of the Associated Press’ Top 25 yesterday, drawing closer to UCLA’s record for most No. 1 rankings.
Duke has reached No. 1 at least once in a record 16 seasons under coach Mike Krzyzewski, and has played more games as the No. 1 ranked team in 33 years under Coach K (209) than as an unranked team (141).
Indiana (9-1) held the top spot from the preseason poll through the first five weeks of the season. Butler beat the Hoosiers 88-86 in overtime Saturday.
The Blue Devils (9-0), whose only game in the past 2 1/2 weeks was a victory over Temple on Dec. 8, received 62 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel.
They will debut their latest No. 1 ranking at home tomorrow night against Cornell.
It is the 123rd week Duke has been ranked No. 1, 11 weeks behind UCLA. All but 31 weeks of Duke’s stay on top have come since the 1991-92 season. The Blue Devils’ last time at No. 1 was an 11-week run in 2010-11.