Tuesday night’s matchup at Hilton Coliseum will officially be a battle of the No. 13 and No. 14 teams in the AP Top 25 after the new polls were released Monday afternoon.
The Iowa State Cyclones are up one spot to No. 13 while the West Virginia dropped out of the top 10 to No. 14. The Cyclones also jumped up two spots in the USA Today Coaches Poll to No. 14.
Oklahoma retained the No. 1 spot in the AP while North Carolina took the top spot in the Coaches. The Tar Heels are No. 2 in the AP followed by Villanova, Maryland and Iowa to round out the top 5.
Kansas is the only other Big 12 team in the top 10 at No. 7 while Texas A&M, Iowa State’s last opponent, dropped to No. 8 this week.
Baylor is right behind Iowa State and West Virginia at No. 15. Texas received one vote in the poll.
Oklahoma still holds the No. 1 spot in the RPI rankings to start the week while Iowa State sits at No. 11. Kansas (No. 5) and Iowa (No. 6) are the other two Iowa State opponents in the top 10.
Texas A&M (No. 12), West Virginia (No. 15), Baylor (No. 17), Colorado (No. 20), Texas (No. 22), Texas Tech (No. 43), Chattanooga (No. 45) and Kansas State (No. 50) give Iowa State 11 teams on their schedule in the top 50.
Seven of those 11 teams are out of the Big 12.