Nov 25, 6:51 PM (ET)

By CHUCK SCHOFFNER

A convincing victory over Tennessee moved No. 1 Duke even further ahead of the pack Monday in the AP women's basketball poll.

Kansas State jumped to second, its highest ranking ever, and BYU joined the poll at No. 22, just the second time the Cougars have been ranked.

Duke (2-0) received 42 of 44 first-place votes from a national media panel after rolling past Tennessee 76-55 on Sunday in an early matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 2.

The Blue Devils had 1,097 points - 98 more than Kansas State (4-0), which climbed two spots after winning the preseason WNIT. Last week, Duke had 37 first-place votes and led No. 2 Tennessee by 33 points.

LSU (2-0) remained third with 989 points and received one first-place vote, while Tennessee (1-1) slipped to fourth with 938 points. Defending national champion Connecticut (2-0) climbed one spot to fifth and received the other first-place vote.

The victory over Tennessee was the first of two major nonconference showdowns for Duke, which had never been No. 1 before this season. The Blue Devils play Connecticut on Feb. 1.

"If you want to be mentioned in the same vein with Tennessee and UConn, you have to play Tennessee and UConn," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said.

"We've made an effort to play those two teams because we want to be like them. We're trying to build that same tradition that they already have. To do that, we've got to go head-to-head with them."

Kansas State also is trying to establish itself among the nation's elite and is on its way this season. The Wildcats beat then-No. 14 Penn State 88-66 in the WNIT championship game Sunday. They won their four WNIT games by an average of 17 points.

Purdue climbed one spot to sixth and was followed by Stanford, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame. Stanford fell two places after escaping with a 59-57 victory over San Francisco.

North Carolina climbed four spots to 11th and Texas Tech was 12th. Then it was Penn State, Minnesota, (15) Louisiana Tech and Texas, followed by Arkansas, Boston College, Mississippi State and Iowa State.

George Washington, BYU, Oklahoma, Cal Santa Barbara and Cincinnati held the final five places.

BYU gained national recognition last season when it upset Iowa State to reach the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament, and the Cougars got another big victory when they beat Texas 79-63 in their opener.

BYU was 20th in the final poll of the 1979-80 season, the only other time it has been ranked.

"I think it's exciting that we were recognized for our efforts," BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. "I know it means a lot to some of our players that have been in the program for a while.

"Hopefully as the season progresses we can get better and better and move up in the rankings."

The loss to BYU dropped Texas from 12th to 16th.

Cincinnati had the biggest drop, falling seven places to 25th after a 76-70 loss to Mississippi State. Louisiana Tech, which upset Texas Tech in its opener, tumbled from 10th to 15th after losing to Western Kentucky.

Colorado State, which had been 24th, dropped out of the poll.