Kansas back to No. 1 in AP men’s hoops poll

Kansas has returned to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 following Gonzaga’s loss to Tennessee.

The Jayhawks received 57 first-place votes from a 65-person media panel on Monday despite struggling to get past New Mexico State.

No. 2 Duke received four first-places votes, with No. 3 Tennessee, No. 4 Gonzaga, No. 5 Michigan and No. 6 Michigan getting one each.

Kansas (8-0) was preseason No. 1, but dropped a spot after Duke rolled over Kentucky to open the college basketball season.

Gonzaga, the topranked team after beating the Blue Devils at the Maui Invitational, fell back after a 76-73 loss to the Vols Sunday in Phoenix.

No. 7 Nevada, Auburn, Michigan State and Florida State round out the top 10.

MICHIGAN STATE ENTERS AP WOMEN’S POLL >> A win over Oregon vaulted Michigan State into the women’s AP Top 25.

The Spartans enter the poll at No. 23 on Monday, a day after upsetting the then-third ranked Ducks 88-82. Michigan State (8-1) only had three votes from the 31-member national media panel last week. It’s the first ranking for Michigan State in two years.

The win was the Spartans first over a topthree opponent since April 3, 2005, when they defeated No. 3 Tennessee, 68-64 in the Final Four. It’s also the team’s first regular-season win over a top-three opponent since Dec. 2, 2004, when they won at No. 3 Notre Dame, 82-73 in overtime.

The Ducks fell to seventh after suffering their first loss of the season.

There wasn’t much other movement in the poll with many teams starting their exam breaks. UConn and Notre Dame remain No. 1 and 2. Baylor, Louisville and Mississippi State round out the first five teams in the poll.

Drake fell out of the Top 25 after losing at South Dakota State.

NFL

RAIDERS FIRE GM >> The Raiders fired general manager Reggie McKenzie on Monday, less than two years after he was named the NFL’s executive of the year.

A person familiar with the move says McKenzie was let go from the position he had held for almost seven seasons a day after Oakland beat Pittsburgh, 24-21, for its third win of the season.

McKenzie’s status was in doubt ever since coach Jon Gruden was given a 10-year contract last January to take charge of the football operation for the Raiders. McKenzie’s influence had waned since then, with the Raiders cutting ties with several of the players he had acquired, most notably edge rusher Khalil Mack and receiver Amari Cooper.

McKenzie was the first major hire made by owner Mark Davis after he took over the team following the death of his father, Al, in 2011. McKenzie modernized the franchise, got the team out of salary cap purgatory, and built a roster that won 12 games under coach Jack Del Rio in 2016, earning him honors as the league’s top executive.

Gruden set out to overhaul the roster, trading away and cutting many of McKenzie’s former draft picks. That accelerated a week before the start of the season when Mack was dealt to Chicago for a package including two first-round picks and then Cooper was dealt in October to Dallas for another first-round pick.

With those deals, only nine players drafted by McKenzie from 2012-17 remain on the active roster.

The highlight of McKenzie’s tenure came in the 2014 draft, when he put together the nucleus of Oakland’s only playoff team since going to the Super Bowl following the 2002 campaign.

The Raiders struggled this year in Gruden’s first year back on the sideline since being fired by Tampa Bay following the 2008 season. Oakland started the season 1-8 before winning two of the past four games. The Raiders (3-10) are tied with San Francisco and Arizona for the worst record in the league.