By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina stayed at No. 12 in the AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll after a pair of victories last week, getting leapfrogged in the poll by unbeaten Vanderbilt.

The Tar Heels (11–1) blew past East Tennessee State 77–58 on Tuesday, then pulled out a Quad 1 71–70 win over Ohio State on Saturday at the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta. UNC is off to its best start since the 2008–09 national championship team won its first 13 games.

UNC faces East Carolina (5–7) at 8:05 p.m. Monday (ACC Network) at the Smith Center in its final nonconference game.

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Carolina may have been able to move up to take advantage of Louisville’s 83–62 loss at Tennessee, but Vanderbilt (12–0), with Tyler Nickel and Jalen Washington, instead jumped past UNC, moving up two spots to No. 11. The Commodores won two road games last week, beating Memphis 77–70 in overtime on Wednesday and Wake Forest 98–67 on Sunday.

The Cardinals (10–2), who rebounded with a 94–54 win over Montana, fell from No. 11 to No. 16 after the loss, while Tennessee (9–3) moved up one spot to No. 19 after also beating Gardner-Webb 94–52.

The Tar Heels’ 806 poll points are their most since garnering 976 last season on Nov. 25, when they also were ranked No. 12. Vanderbilt got 810 poll points, making the gap between the Commodores and the Tar Heels the smallest between two teams in this week’s poll.

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The only other team ahead of the Tar Heels in last week’s poll to lose was Duke, which lost 82–81 to Texas Tech in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. The Blue Devils (11–1) fell three spots to No. 6, while the Red Raiders jumped four spots to No. 15 after also beating Northern Colorado 101–91.

Virginia (10–1) is up two spots to No. 21 after its 80–72 victory over Maryland.

Only one voter, UNC alum Parth Upadhyaya of The Daily Memphian in Memphis, Tenn., had N.C. State on their ballot at No. 25.

Elliot Cadeau’s Michigan team (11–0) stayed at No. 2 while Ian Jackson’s St. John’s team (7–4), which was No. 22, fell out of the poll after Saturday’s 78–66 loss to Kentucky.

WXII’s John Johnson voted UNC the highest of any voter at No. 9, while WTVD’s Kate Rogerson had the Heels No. 10 and WRAL’s Chris Lea voted UNC No. 11.

For the third consecutive week, Shane Mettlen of the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va., voted Carolina the lowest, this time at No. 20. Mettlen has voted UNC the lowest in seven of eight polls.

The highest number of voters (23) have UNC No. 11, with 16 voting the Tar Heels No. 12.

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AP Top 25

Rank	School (1st-place votes)	Record	Poll points	Previous
1	Arizona (38)	11–0	1,428	1
2	Michigan (19)	11–0	1,408	2
3	Iowa State (1)	12–0	1,320	4
4	UConn	12–1	1,281	5
5	Purdue	11–1	1,174	6
6	Duke	11–1	1,148	3
7	Gonzaga	12–1	1,080	7
8	Houston	11–1	1,061	8
9	Michigan State	11–1	985	9
10	BYU	11–1	966	10
11	Vanderbilt	12–0	810	13
12	North Carolina	11–1	806	12
13	Nebraska	12–0	704	15
14	Alabama	9–3	638	16
15	Texas Tech	9–3	588	19
16	Louisville	10–2	555	11
17	Kansas	9–3	494	17
18	Arkansas	9–3	470	14
19	Tennessee	9–3	460	20
20	Illinois	8–3	429	18
21	Virginia	10–1	252	T23
22	Florida	8–4	215	T23
23	Georgia	10–1	127	25
24	Southern Cal	12–1	92	NR
25	Iowa	10–2	79	NR

Others receiving votes: Kentucky 78, Seton Hall 49, Auburn 39, St. John’s 23, California 19, LSU 17, UCLA 13, Clemson 9, Miami (Ohio) 6, Utah St. 5, Arizona St. 5, Indiana 4, Miami 4, Saint Louis 3, Belmont 2, Baylor 1, Oklahoma St. 1, UCF 1, N.C. State 1.

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Team	League	Overall	NET*	WAB*
No. 1 Duke	17–1	29–2	1	2
No. 10 Virginia	15–3	27–4	13	11
Miami	13–5	24–7	32	28
No. 19 North Carolina	12–6	24–7	23	19
Clemson	12–6	22–9	36	33
No. 24 Louisville	11–7	22–9	14	25
N.C. State	10–8	19–12	35	45
Florida State	10–8	17–14	69	74
California	9–9	21–10	65	49
Stanford	9–9	20–11	59	51
SMU	8–10	19–12	39	50
Virginia Tech	8–10	19–12	53	52
Wake Forest	7–11	16–15	64	81
Syracuse	6–12	15–16	83	92
Pittsburgh	5–13	12–19	109	146
Notre Dame	4–14	13–18	93	121
Boston College	4–14	11–20	159	217
Georgia Tech	2–16	11–20	167	210

* — Through Sunday games
Saturday’s results
No. 1 Duke 76, No. 19 North Carolina 61
Boston College 77, Notre Dame 69
Clemson 79, Georgia Tech 76
No. 24 Louisville 92, Miami 89
Florida State 92, SMU 78
Stanford 85, N.C. State 84
Wake Forest 80, California 73
Pittsburgh 71, Syracuse 69, OT
END OF REGULAR SEASON
ACC tournament
Spectrum Center | Charlotte
Tuesday through Saturday

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Date	Month/day	Scores	Opponent/event (current ranks)	Record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. BYU in SLC	Exhib.
29	Wednesday	W, 95–53	vs. Winston-Salem St.	Exhib.
	November
3	Monday	W, 94–54	vs. Central Arkansas	1–0
7	Friday	W, 87–74	vs. No. 17 Kansas	2–0
11	Tuesday	W, 89–74	vs. Radford	3–0
14	Friday	W, 97–53	vs. N.C. Central	4–0
18	Tuesday	W, 73–61	vs. Navy	5–0
			Fort Myers Tip-Off
25	Tuesday	W, 85–70	vs. St. Bonaventure	6–0
27	Thursday	L, 74–58	vs. No. 11 Michigan State	6–1
	December		ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
2	Tuesday	W, 67–64	at Kentucky	7–1
			—————————
7	Sunday	W, 81–61	vs. Georgetown	8–1
13	Saturday	W, 80–62	vs. USC Upstate	9–1
16	Tuesday	W, 77–58	vs. ETSU	10–1
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	W, 71–70	vs. Ohio State	11–1
			—————————
22	Monday	W, 99–51	vs. East Carolina	12–1
30	Tuesday	W, 79–66	vs. Florida State	13–1, 1–0 ACC
	January
3	Saturday	L, 97–83	at SMU	13–2, 1–1
10	Saturday	W, 87–84	vs. Wake Forest	14–2, 2–1
14	Wednesday	L, 95–90	at Stanford	14–3, 2–2
17	Saturday	L, 84–78	at California	14–4, 2–3
21	Wednesday	W, 91–69	vs. Notre Dame	15–4, 3–3
24	Saturday	W, 85–80	at No. 9 Virginia	16–4, 4–3
31	Saturday	W, 91–75	at Georgia Tech	17–4, 5–3
	February
2	Monday	W, 87–77	vs. Syracuse	18–4, 6–3
7	Saturday	W, 71–68	vs. No. 1 Duke	19–4, 7–3
10	Tuesday	L, 75–66	at No. 25 Miami	19–5, 7–4
14	Saturday	W, 79–65	vs. Pittsburgh	20–5, 8–4
17	Tuesday	L, 82–58	at N.C. State	20–6, 8–5
21	Saturday	W, 77–64	at Syracuse	21–6, 9–5
23	Monday	W, 77–74	vs. Louisville	22–6, 10–5
28	Saturday	W, 89–82	vs. Virginia Tech	23–6, 11–5
	March
3	Tuesday	W, 67–63	vs. Clemson	24–6, 12–5
7	Saturday	L, 76–61	at No. 1 Duke	24–7, 12–6
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte
12	Thursday	L, 80–79	Quarterfinals: vs. Clemson	24–8
		NCAA tournament
19	Thursday	L, 82–78, OT	First round: vs. VCU in Greenville, S.C.	24–9

Photo by Adam Hagy/Intersport