Duke Still No. 1; USC 8th, UCLA 9th : College basketball: Blue Devils gain 10 first-place votes after victory over the Bruins. Trojans rise from No. 13.

Duke, which defeated then-No. 4 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday, regained 10 first-place votes it had lost last week and solidified its hold atop the Associated Press college basketball rankings.

The Blue Devils, who clinched the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title last week, have been atop the rankings since the preseason poll. However, they dropped to 48 first-place votes last week. The Blue Devils had 58 Monday and 1,617 points from the nationwide panel of sportswriters and broadcasters to easily outdistance No. 2 Indiana and No. 3 Kansas.

USC rose from No. 13 to No. 8, while UCLA dropped to No. 9. Arizona moved up one spot to fourth and Ohio State rose from eighth to round out the top five.

Nevada Las Vegas, which received the final two first-place votes, moved from seventh to sixth. Arkansas is No. 7 and Kentucky is No. 10.

Missouri, which was No. 6 last week before losing to Kansas State, is No. 11, followed by Oklahoma State, Michigan State, Cincinnati, DePaul, North Carolina, Georgetown, Michigan, Florida State and Alabama.

Tulane led the final five and was followed by Seton Hall, Louisiana State, Syracuse and Massachusetts.

Cincinnati and DePaul, members of the new Great Midwest, made the week’s biggest jumps, each moving up six spots to 14th and 15th, respectively.

The biggest declines were of the same length as North Carolina, which has lost four in a row, fell from 10th to 16th, while Tulane, which lost to South Florida and Louisville last week, dropped to 21st.

No. 22 Seton Hall, which beat Georgetown and Connecticut last week, had been out of the rankings for one week. Louisiana State was out for two weeks and returned at No. 23.

Massachusetts, which has already clinched the Atlantic 10 regular-season title, was ranked for one week earlier in the season, the school’s first-ever appearance in the poll. The Minutemen earned their way back in at No. 25 by beating West Virginia and Duquesne last week.

Two of the three teams dropping out of the rankings--St. John’s and Connecticut--are from the Big East, but Seton Hall’s return gives the conference three ranked team, the same as the Pacific 10. The Big Ten and Southeastern Conference have four each.

St. John’s split its two games last week, beating Providence on the road and losing at Notre Dame to end a seven-game winning streak. Connecticut continued its late-season slide with losses last week to Pittsburgh and Seton Hall, giving the Huskies a 1-7 record since Feb. 1. They had been ranked as high as fifth during the season.

Nebraska was ranked for one week as the Cornhuskers split their two games last week and dropped from the poll.