It has been another rollercoaster week in men’s college basketball and the result is another wild AP rankings list. Dan Hurley’s UConn Huskies are back on track with their latest win, going 7-3 in the season. The team, at the 25th position last week after three straight losses in Maui, has moved up to the 18th spot. But what is surprising is the new No. 1 team and the beating Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks have taken.

For the first time this season, the Tennessee Volunteers have taken over the No. 1 spot in Week 5 thanks to making it through the last week unscathed. But it’s also largely because of two consecutive losses for Kansas, who not only dropped two back-to-back games but dropped them to unranked teams.

The first shock loss was to Creighton and then last night to Missouri, making them now rank at No. 10. One more slip up and even top 10 could be a dream for Self’s squad. Missouri is on a seven-game winning streak whereas Kansas doesn’t want to make it a third consecutive loss when they face NC State next. Coach Self was in disbelief over how “poorly” the Jayhawks played against Mizzou yesterday.

“I don’t think we had them ready to play,” Self said, per 247Sports. “We had one good possession in the first half, and it happened in the first 10 seconds of the game. So there weren’t too many positives to take from it. It’s amazing that we were still in the game as poorly as we played.”

Meanwhile, Tennessee is now 8-0 for the first time since the 2018-19 season, also making it their best start since the 2000-01 season (9-0) and also the best start for the Vols in head coach Rick Barnes’ 10-year tenure. Of the ranking, the coach said, “It doesn’t mean a whole lot other than the fact it’s a compliment to start we’ve gotten off to, and it’s a compliment to them. They worked hard and they certainly want to be No. 1. But they wanna be No. 1 at the end of the year. And I think if you embrace it, it can make you better because you know that everyone else is looking to build a resume.”

Where UConn is also slowly jumping up the ranks, Kansas is steadily moving in a downward direction. Before last week, the Jayhawks were doing better than ever, having begun the season as the top-ranked team for a second straight year. Not to mention, they had impressive top-10 victories over Duke and North Carolina early on. Now? Bill Self is still trying to figure out what his team really is.

Bill Self still figuring out the identity of Kansas Jayhawks

Maybe it was something in the air. Last week, six of the of the top-10 teams lost at least one game last week, Kansas included. But where Creighton was already a wound in the Jayhawks’ side as their star center Ryan Kalkbrenner limited Kansas star Hunter Dickinson, Missouri added to their troubles, pulling perhaps the biggest upset of the season so far.

Afterward, Bill Self could not help but be critical of his team. “I don’t know that we’re close to finding an identity yet,” the coach said. “Because who are we? Are we a skilled team? Are we an athletic team? Are we an execution team … I’ll be honest with you, I think right now, we’re kind of in a situation that it’d be hard for me to say from game to game what we are.”

It was indeed a surprise loss in the Border War match-up, with Kansas losing to Mizzou for the first time in 12 years. The team’s shooting was questionable, with not a single player reaching 20 points. But up against NC State next, Self’s squad will be looking to take back a victory.