Borges Top 25: Sparty’s back on top

It was a good week for Ball State (which knocked off No. 9 Notre Dame in South Bend) and no-Ball State (a.k.a. UCLA, which lost at Michigan but, more significantly, lost LiAngelo Ball and seems to have forever severed ties with his insidious father, LaVar).

It was a real bad week for Kansas, which lost to Washington in Kansas City, then Arizona State at Allen Fieldhouse.

There were plenty of other upsets, including Florida losing at home to Loyola-Chicago (after getting trounced at home by Florida State). And there is a new No. 1 on our AP Top 25 ballot.

Michigan State, our preseason No. 1, has looked every bit the best team in the country with dominating wins over North Carolina, Notre Dame (and UConn). The Spartans’ lone slip-up was an early-November loss to Duke in Chicago, but we vault them over the Dukies after Coach K and crew lost at Boston College on Saturday at sold-out Conte Forum.

(By the way, wouldn’t it have been nice to have the likes of Duke and North Carolina coming to Storrs for conference games? Oh well. Conference realignment, what a joke.)

Anyway, we add Florida State, Oklahoma, Arkansas and LoyolaChicago, while bouncing out Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island and noBall State … err, UCLA.

Here’s this week’s ballot:

1. Michigan State: Our preseason No. 1 is back on the top.

2. Villanova: We’re still feeling the aftershocks of Mikal Bridges’ dunk Tuesday night at the Garden.

3. Wichita State: Shockers are one blown lead vs. Notre Dame away from being undefeated.

4. Duke: Something happened on the way to Conte Forum on Saturday – Blue Devils forgot how to win.

5. Arizona State: Wait a minute – ASU’s best bench player is named Remy Martin? That’s just awesome.

6. Miami: We’ve liked Bruce Brown ever since he was being recruited by UConn.

7. Kentucky: Wildcats didn’t need overtime to blast Monmouth Saturday at MSG.

8. Xavier: Musketeers 7-0 at home this year, with all wins by double digits.

9. North Carolina: AD Bubba Cunningham says Heels “didn’t win” by avoiding sanctions. Yeah, right.

10. Seton Hall: We seem to like the Pirates more than most. Tough bunch of New York kids.

11. Texas A&M: Robert Williams seems like a potential lottery pick.

12. West Virginia: Jevon Carter can play on my team.

13. TCU: Did you know the Horned Frogs won the NIT last season? I didn’t.

14. Purdue: Isaac Haas is tall. And good.

15. Kansas: Jayhawks lose consecutive games for the first time since December, 2013.

16. Florida State: You won’t see many more impressive wins than what Seminoles did to Florida in Gainesville.

17. Gonzaga: Zags didn’t look very good getting smoked by Villanova at MSG, but looked a lot better crushing Washington on Sunday.

18. Texas Tech: Red Raiders one of two Texas teams (along with TCU) to beat Nevada this past week.

19. Oklahoma: Trae Young is like an overly-athletic Buddy Hield. Fun to watch.

20. Virginia: At 62 possessions per game, Cavs are slowest-paced team in nation. Not fun to watch.

21. Florida: Was gonna oust Gators after three straight losses, but redeemed themselves a bit beating Cincy on neutral floor.

22. Cincinnati: We ask again – do the Bearcats ever win a big, nonconference game?

23. Notre Dame: Irish made David Letterman happy with home loss to Ball State on Tuesday.

24. Arkansas: Who are the real Razorbacks? The team that gave UConn its worst loss in 40 years or the one that got smoked by Houston?

25. Loyola-Chicago: Beat Florida in Gainesville, get some Top 25 love.