For the first time in more than eight years, Duke is nowhere to be seen in The Associated Press Top 25 — not near the top, not even at the bottom. This is the first time since the preseason poll of 2007-08 that the Blue Devils are not ranked.
Duke (15-6) has lost four of its last five, including home games with Notre Dame and Syracuse. Last week’s loss to Miami knocked them out from 24th, ending a run of 167 consecutive appearances in the men’s poll.
The Blue Devils still had a ways to go to catch UCLA, which put together a run of 221 consecutive polls from 1966-80. Kansas now has the longest run, 136 polls that began on Feb. 3, 2009, with Arizona next at 72 consecutive polls.
The Duke team that started the run featured five double-figure scorers — DeMarcus Nelson, Kyle Singler, Gerald Henderson, Jon Scheyer and Greg Paulus — and finished 28-6, losing to West Virginia in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Singler and Scheyer were the key players two years later when Duke won its fourth of five national championships.
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