Traditional national powers slip

Longtime national powers like Duke, Kansas, Arizona and Kentucky don’t lose often, much less on the same day.

Yet that’s what happened in what turned into a trouble-filled Saturday, the biggest news in a week that saw 10 teams in the AP Top 25 lose at least once, with nine of those stumbling against unranked teams. That will surely lead to significant changes when the new poll is released Monday.

Fourth-ranked Duke lost to St. John’s. Seventhranked Kansas lost at home to Oklahoma State. Ninthranked Arizona lost on a last-second shot at Washington. And No. 21 Kentucky — which returned to the poll this week after falling out for the first time in nearly four years — lost at Missouri.

The series of losses kept things busy for ESPN Stats and Info, which noted it was the first time those four powers all lost on the same day as AP Top 25 teams. It was also the first time that Duke and Kansas lost as top-10 teams against unranked opponents on the same day since January 2003.

The Blue Devils’ loss was the most confounding. While the others lost to teams hovering near .500 in their conferences, the preseason No. 1-ranked Blue Devils lost to a team that was 0-11 in the Big East.

Afterward, Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski was clear in his displeasure with the way they performed, calling them “a very frustrating group to coach today” and saying “we got what we deserved.”

“I’ve coached for 43 years, that is not acceptable. So I will do the things that I’ve done for 43 years to make sure that the next time we go out, we have an acceptable performance by our Duke team,” Krzyzewski said.

For the record, that next time will be Thursday night at rival North Carolina.

Virginia

Second-ranked Virginia (22-1, 11-0) continued its methodical march toward what appears to be an inevitable ACC regular-season title. The Cavaliers beat Louisville at home and won at Syracuse for their 14th consecutive victory, keeping them at least three games up in the loss column on the rest of the conference.

Connecticut women

Napheesa Collier scored 25 points and Kia Nurse added 23 as No. 1 Connecticut easily rolled to its 150th win in a row against an unranked opponent, beating Cincinnati, 106-65. The Huskies (22-0, 10-0) have won all 80 of their regular-season league games since the formation of the American Athletic Conference in 2013.