By R.L. Bynum

With two impressive victories and six teams ahead of North Carolina in last week’s AP Top 25 women’s poll losing, the Tar Heels earned their highest rank in nearly eight years.

UNC (4–0) jumped five spots to No. 8 in the latest poll, the highest ranking since it was No. 8 on Jan. 5, 2015. The Tar Heels routed South Carolina State 93–25 and earned a tough 76–65 road victory over James Madison.

It’s the first time since Jan. 3, 2011, that Carolina’s men’s and women’s teams have both been ranked in the top 10, with the men still No. 1. The Tar Heels men were No. 9 and the women were No. 8 in that 2011 poll. The combined ranking of nine this week is the best since the teams had a combined ranking of 10 on Nov. 16, 2010, when the women were No. 4 and the men were No. 6.

The next-highest combined ranking for any other school in this week’s polls is Indiana at 17, with the men No. 11 and the women No. 6. Both UNC teams play at Indiana in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, with the men’s game on Nov. 30 and the women’s game on Dec. 1.

Only 11 schools are ranked in both polls, and UNC is the only one with both in the Top 10. No other ACC school is ranked in both polls.

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Schools ranked in both AP Top 25 polls

UNC men 1 and women 8 — 9
Indiana 11 and 6 — 17
Texas 4 and 19 — 23
UConn 20 and 3 — 23
Creighton 10 and 16 — 26
Baylor 7 and 21 — 28
Arizona 14 and 15 — 29
Iowa 25 and 9 —34
Maryland 23 and 14 — 37
UCLA 19 and 20 — 39
Tennessee 22 and 23 — 45

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The Tar Heels moved up only three slots in the USA Today Coaches Poll to No. 10.

Carolina’s women head to Portland this week to face No. 18 Oregon (3–0), which moved up three spots, at 5 p.m. Thursday (ESPNU) and either No. 5 Iowa State (4–0), which moved up two spots, or Michigan State (6–0) on Sunday (ESPN2).

South Carolina (4–0) held the No. 1 spot after winning an epic 76–71 overtime game at Stanford (5–1), which stayed at No. 2.

Texas (1–3) plummeted from No. 3 to No. 19 after losing all three games last week, 83–76 to Connecticut, 68–61 to Marquette and 71–63 to Louisville.

Iowa fell from No. 4 to No. 9 after losing 84–83 to Kansas.

UConn (3–0) jumped from No. 5 to No. 3 after that win over Texas and rolling to a 91–69 victory over N.C. State. The Wolfpack (4–1), which also beat Charlotte 96–48, fell from No. 10 to No. 13.

Louisville (4–1) had its win over Texas but fell from No. 6 to No. 10 after losing 79–67 in overtime to still-unranked Gonzaga.

Other ACC teams in the poll are Notre Dame (4–0), which moved up two spots to No. 7, and Virginia Tech (3–0), which moved up three spots to No. 11.

Tennessee fell from No. 11 to No. 23 after losing 79–67 to Indiana and 80–62 to UCLA.

Indiana moved up six spots to No. 6 after that win over the Lady Vols and wins over Bowling Green and Quinnipiac.

Four voters ranked the Tar Heels the highest at No. 6: Mitchell Northam of WUNC (the only North Carolina-based voter), broadcaster and former N.C. State player Deb Antonelli, Alex Simon of the San Jose Mercury News and Stefan Krajisnik of the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss.

Ranking UNC the lowest at No. 13 were Kelly Gramlich of ACC Network, Lindsay Schnell of USA Today and Mike Carmin of the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Ind. Gramlich was the first AP voter to rank the Tar Heels last season.

Two voters have UNC No. 7, two have them No. 8, five have them No. 9 and five have them No. 10.

AP Top 25

Rank	Team	Change	Poll points (1st-place votes)
1	South Carolina (4-0)	—	725 (29)
2	Stanford (5-1)	—	687
3	UConn (3-0)	+2	676
4	Ohio State (4-0)	+4	589
5	Iowa State (4-0)	+2	586
6	Indiana (5-0)	+6	549
7	Notre Dame (4-0)	+2	545
8	North Carolina (4-0)	5	473
9	Iowa (4-1)	-5	465
10	Louisville (4-1)	-4	461
11	Virginia Tech (3-0)	+3	403
12	LSU (5-0)	+3	393
13	N.C. State (4-1)	-3	377
14	Maryland (4-1)	+5	319
15	Arizona (4-0)	+3	307
16	Creighton (4-0)	+4	306
17	Utah (4-0)	+8	212
18	Oregon (3-0)	+3	208
19	Texas (1-3)	-16	189
20	UCLA (5-0)	—	185
21	Baylor (3-1)	-4	182
22	Michigan (4-0)	+1	116
23	Tennessee (2-3)	-12	96
23	Villanova (4-0)	+1	96
25	Kansas State (5-0)	—	71

Others receiving votes: Oklahoma 69, Marquette 65, Gonzaga 33, Kansas 11, Drake 8, South Florida 5, Duke 5, Ole Miss 4, South Dakota State 4, Princeton 3, Nebraska 1, Georgia 1. Point values in parentheses indicate the number of first-place votes.

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UNC statistics

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Date	Month/day	Time/score	Opponent/event (current ranking)	Location	Record
	November
9	Wednesday	W, 91–59	Jackson State	Home	1–0
12	Saturday	W, 75–48	TCU	Home	2–0
16	Wednesday	W, 93–25	South Carolina State	Home	3–0
20	Sunday	W, 76–65	James Madison	Harrisonburg, Va.	4–0
			Phil Knight Invitational
24	Thursday	W, 85–79	Oregon	Portland	5–0
27	Sunday	W, 73–64	No. 17 Iowa State	Portland	6–0
	December		ACC/Big Ten Challenge
1	Thursday	L, 87–63	No. 2 Indiana	Bloomington, Ind.	6–1
7	Wednesday	W, 64–42	UNCW	Home	7–1
11	Sunday	W, 99–67	Wofford	Home	8–1
16	Friday	W, 89–47	USC Upstate	Home	9–1
			Jumpman Invitational
20	Tuesday	L, 76–68	No. 18 Michigan	Charlotte	9–2
			ACC season begins
29	Thursday	L, 78–71	Florida State	Home	9–3, 0–1 ACC
	January
1	Sunday	L, 68–65	No. 4 Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, Va.	9–4, 0–2 ACC
5	Thursday	L, 62–58	Miami	Coral Gables, Fla.	9–5, 0–3 ACC
8	Sunday	W, 60–50	No. 10 Notre Dame	Home	10–5, 1–3 ACC
12	Thursday	W, 70–59	Virginia	Charlottesville, Va.	11–5, 2–3 ACC
15	Sunday	W, 56–47	N.C. State	Home	12–5, 3–3 ACC
19	Thursday	W, 61–56	No. 13 Duke	Home	13–5, 4–3 ACC
22	Sunday	W, 70–57	Georgia Tech	Home	14–5, 5–3 ACC
26	Thursday	W, 72–57	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh	15–5, 6–3 ACC
29	Sunday	W, 69–58	Clemson	Clemson	16–5, 7–3 ACC
	February
2	Thursday	W, 73–62	Virginia	Home	17–5, 8–3 ACC
5	Sunday	L, 62–55	Louisville	Louisville	17–6, 8–4 ACC
9	Thursday	L, 75–67	Syracuse	Syracuse	17–7, 8–5 ACC
12	Sunday	W, 73–55	Boston College	Home	18–7, 9–5 ACC
16	Thursday	L, 77–66, OT	N.C. State	Raleigh	18–8, 9–6 ACC
19	Sunday	W, 71–58	Wake Forest	Home	19–8, 10–6 ACC
23	Thursday	L, 61–59	No. 4 Virginia Tech	Home	19–9, 10–7 ACC
26	Sunday	W, 45–41	No. 13 Duke	Durham	20–9, 10–8 ACC
	March		ACC Tournament
2	Thursday	W, 68–58	Clemson	Greensboro	21–9
3	Friday	L, 44–40	No. 13 Duke	Greensboro	21–10
			NCAA tournament
18	Saturday	W, 61–59	St. John’s	Columbus, Ohio	22–10
20	Monday	L, 71–69	No. 12 Ohio State	Columbus, Ohio	22–11

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications