DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former USC point guard Maurice Jones will transfer to Iowa State and be eligible to play for the Cyclones starting with the 2013-14 season. Jones, who averaged 13 points and 3.5 assists for the Trojans last season, signed a financial aid agreement with Iowa State on Thursday. Jones will be a junior next season. But he won’t be able to play for the Cyclones until the end of the fall semester, or roughly mid-December of 2013. Jones, a 5-foot-7 native of Saginaw, Mich., led all Pac-12 players in minutes last season. He also led the Trojans in points, assists, steals and 3-pointers. Jones will be among those in line to replace Cyclones point guard Korie Lucious, a Michigan State transfer eligible to play this year.

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ preseason college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, 2011-12 final records, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and 2011-12 final ranking:

Others receiving votes: Murray St. 59, VCU 58, Saint Louis 46, Texas 46, Minnesota 40, Butler 33, Pittsburgh 32, Saint Joseph’s 25, Marquette 23, Tennessee 15, Oklahoma St. 14, Kansas St. 12, Georgetown 9, New Mexico 9, Ohio 9, Miami 8, Saint Mary’s (Cal) 6, West Virginia 6, Davidson 5, Drexel 5, N. Iowa 5, Valparaiso 3, Lehigh 2, Stanford 2, Colorado St. 1, Oral Roberts 1.

Northwestern and Iowa have spent the past week trying to get over crushing home defeats. Northwestern (6-2, 2-2 Big Ten) blew a 12-point lead midway through the fourth quarter and lost a heartbreaker to Nebraska, 29-28, last Saturday. The Hawkeyes (4-3, 2-1) let Penn State jump out to an early lead and got crushed, 38-14, in one of the worst losses of coach Kirk Ferentz’s 14-year tenure. Those losses have given Northwestern and Iowa an added sense of urgency heading into Saturday’s matchup in Evanston. Both teams are on the verge of being out of contention in the Big Ten Legends Division.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa State could not have picked a better time to host the nation’s worst defense. Quarterbacks Steele Jantz and Jared Barnett have both earned and lost the starting job in the past three months. Coach Paul Rhoads won’t let anyone know the starter until Saturday night’s game against Baylor. The Bears (3-3, 0-3 Big 12) have given up 70, 49 and 56 points in the past three weeks, all losses. Baylor’s porous defense will meet up with Iowa State (4-3, 1-3) and its stagnant offense Saturday night — a matchup between teams with major issues and little time to get them fixed.

The Chiefs were off last week, giving them a chance to hit the refresh button a season that’s spiraling out of control. So in another attempt to change the status quo, Crennel said he swapped out the signs this week to try to get across a positive message to his team.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — While watching the World Series on the big screen, Mike Matheny can’t help but project, wondering how it all went wrong. Three days after the St. Louis Cardinals squandered a 3-1 lead in the NL championship series and punished themselves with a red-eye flight home, their rookie manager said he hadn’t slept much. He also hadn’t had much time to dissect exactly how it all went sour so fast. The team failed on many levels in dropping the last three games to the Giants by a combined score of 20-1. Matheny said it was somewhat reassuring to see San Francisco’s Barry Zito master the Detroit Tigers in Game 1, just as the left-hander carved up the Cardinals in Game 5 of the NLCS. In a year filled with booms and busts, Matheny and general manager John Mozeliak are still puzzled by the final collapse.