It was not a good night to be at the top of the AP Top 25.
For the first time in five years, three of the top four teams in the poll lost on the same day.
No. 1 Villanova was beaten 74-72 at Marquette on Tuesday, No. 2 Kansas fell 85-69 at No. 18 West Virginia, and No. 4 Kentucky lost 82-80 at Tennessee.
That left No. 3 Gonzaga with a good chance to move up to No. 1 next week. The only undefeated team in Division I, the Zags (20-0) still face San Diego and Pepperdine this week.
It was on Jan. 21, 2012, that No. 1 Syracuse lost 67-58 to Notre Dame, No. 3 Baylor fell 89-88 to No. 5 Missouri and No. 4 Duke was beaten 76-73 by Florida State.
Kentucky was No. 2 that day and, after beating Alabama 77-71 on the night of upsets, the Wildcats ascended to No. 1.
Syracuse fell to third after the loss, Baylor dropped to sixth and Duke plunged to eighth.
On Tuesday, Marquette (14-6, 5-3 Big East) rallied from a 17-point deficit for the win over the Wildcats (19-2, 7-2).
It was the second time Marquette defeated a No. 1-ranked team. The Golden Eagles beat Kentucky in the 2003 Final Four.
Their fans partied at the Bradley Center in a court-storming frenzy, celebrating as if coach Al McGuire was still pacing the Marquette sideline.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said Katin Reinhardt, who made two free throws with 11.6 seconds to play. “You dream of these types of moments.”
Villanova’s Jay Wright, the coach of the defending national champions, said: “You’ve got to put a whole 40 minutes together. Sometimes you get on the road and a team gets hot. If you don’t finish the 40 minutes, they’ll get you.”
West Virginia pulled away to a victory that snapped Kansas’ 18-game winning streak.
Esa Ahmad scored a career-high 27 points for the Mountaineers (16-4, 5-3 Big 12), who broke a two-game losing streak that dropped them 11 spots in the AP Top 25.
Josh Jackson matched his season high with 22 points for Kansas (18-2, 7-1).
West Virginia limited its turnovers to eight and went 19 of 23 from the free throw line, making nine of its final 10.
“We did both of those things today,” coach Bob Huggins said. “And when we do, we’re pretty good.”
Robert Hubbs III scored 25 points as Tennessee snapped Kentucky’s seven-game winning streak.
Tennessee (11-9, 4-4 Southeastern Conference) beat Kentucky (17-3, 7-1) in Knoxville for the second straight season and earned its first victory over a top-five team since an 83-76 triumph over No. 3 Pittsburgh on Dec. 11, 2010.
“We just wanted to go out and make a statement,” Hubbs said. “I think we did that tonight.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari said: “Tennessee was better than us tonight. They deserved to win the game. It would have been a shame if we’d made a 3 or something crazy and had won the game. … From the start, they deserved to win.”
