By R.L. Bynum
Normally, a decisive victory against a 1–5 team wouldn’t improve your standing in the AP Top 25. But when it’s Kentucky, that might be the exception.
North Carolina’s 75–63 victory over the Wildcats on Saturday at the CBS Sports Classic in Cleveland bumped up the 5–2 Tar Heels from No. 22 in last week’s poll to No. 17 in the poll released Monday. Duke (3–2) moved up one slot to No. 20 and Virginia Tech (6–1) cracked the poll at No. 24.
Five consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25 is nearly as long as the six consecutive weeks that UNC was ranked at the beginning of last season.
Ranking UNC the highest at No. 9 is Seth Davis of CBS. Four voters left the Tar Heels off their Top 25: Chris Murray of Nevada Sports Net, Dave Borges of the New Haven (Conn.) Register, Jordan Hansen of the Missoulian and Sam Blum of the Dallas Morning News.
Of the North Carolina voters, News & Observer columnist Luke DeCock ranked UNC the highest at No. 16. Ethan Joyce of the Winston-Salem Journal and Lauren Brownlow of WRALSportsFan.com have the Tar Heels No. 18.
The Tar Heels’ only game this week will be their ACC opener at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night at N.C. State (4–1) in a game to be televised by ACC Network. The game was moved from its original 9 p.m. start time after the Notre Dame-Syracuse game, which was to start at 7 p.m., was postponed.
AP Top 25
Others receiving votes: San Diego State 146, Richmond 142, Saint Louis 64, Arkansas 54, Indiana 53, Clemson 28, Florida 20, Georgia 19, Colorado 13, BYU 9, Purdue 9, Louisville 8, Northwestern 7, UCF 6, Minnesota 4, UCLA 3, Oklahoma State 3, LSU 2, Western Kentucky 2, SMU 1
Photo courtesy of CBS Sports Classic
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