By R.L. Bynum

Carolina’s convincing 75–59 victory Saturday over Georgia Tech wasn’t enough to return the Tar Heels to the AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll or even convince any voters that they deserve to be ranked.

After only one voter, David Thompson of the Fayetteville Observer, had UNC (6–4, 1–1 ACC) on his ballot last week at No. 25 last week, the Tar Heels got left off of every ballot this week. The only ranked teams with more than two losses are No. 15 Gonzaga and No. 18 Illinois, both at 7–3.

One coach voted Carolina No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

The Tar Heels, No. 37 in the NET rankings, play host to The Citadel (5–4, 270 in the NET rankings) at 7 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN2) and face Ohio State (7–2, 31 in the NET rankings) in New York at the CBS Sports Classic at 3 p.m. Saturday (CBS). The Buckeyes moved up two spots to No. 23.

Carolina will seek its first Quad 1 win against the Buckeyes after losing its first four. The Tar Heels are unbeaten in all other games, 3–0 in Quad 2 games, 2–0 in Quad 3 games and 1–0 in Quad 4 games.

After the top two teams in last week’s poll lost (Houston, 9–1, which fell from No. 1 to No. 5 after a 71–65 loss to Alabama; and Texas, 7–1, which dropped from No. 2 to No. 7 after an 85–78 overtime loss to Illinois), Virginia (8–0) jumped a spot to No. 2 after a 55–50 win over James Madison.

Purdue (10–0), after beating Hofstra 85–66 and Nebraska 65–62, is the new No. 1 team.

Duke (10–2) moved up three spots to No. 12. Virginia Tech (10–1) debuted in the poll at No. 24 after beating Oklahoma State 70–65 and Miami (10–1) debuted at No. 25 following its 80–73 win over N.C. State.

Three teams ranked No. 20 or lower in last week’s ranking lost, including the Iowa State team that beat Carolina at the Phil Knight Invitational. The Cyclones fell from No. 20 to unranked after a 75–56 loss to rival Iowa.

Also losing last week was Creighton (which has dropped four consecutive games and fell from No. 21 to unranked after an 83–80 loss to BYU) and San Diego State (which went from No. 22 to unranked after a 68–61 loss to Saint Mary’s).

Maryland fell from No. 13 to No. 20 after losing to Wisconsin 64–59 and Tennessee 56–52.

AP Top 25

Rank	Team	Change	Poll points (first-place votes)
1	Purdue (10–0)	+3	1,508 (27)
2	Virginia (8–0)	+1	1,476 (19)
3	UConn (11–0)	+2	1,466 (15)
4	Alabama (8–1)	+4	1,326
5	Houston (9–1)	-4	1,224
6	Tennessee (9–1)	+1	1,189 (1)
7	Texas (7–1)	-5	1,173
8	Kansas (9–1)	-2	1,165
9	Arizona (8–1)	+1	1,096
10	Arkansas (9–1)	-1	1,029
11	Baylor (7–-2)	+1	881
12	Duke (10–2)	+3	840
13	Kentucky (7–2)	+3	688
14	Indiana (8–2)	—	622
15	Gonzaga (7–3)	+3	621
16	UCLA (8–2)	+3	606
17	Mississippi State (9–0)	+6	497
18	Illinois (7–3)	-1	487
19	Auburn (8–1)	-8	453
20	Maryland (8–2)	-7	414
21	TCU (8–1)	+3	270
22	Wisconsin (8–2)	—	255
23	Ohio State (7–2)	+2	209
24	Virginia Tech (10–1)	—	109
25	Miami (10–1)	—	100

Others receiving votes: Memphis 74, Charleston 64, Marquette 39, Iowa State 39, Arizona State 39, UNLV 27, Xavier 26, Iowa 25, West Virginia 20, Saint Mary’s 15, Texas Tech 14, San Diego State 14, New Mexico 12, Utah 12, Creighton 11, Michigan State 5, Mississippi Valley State 4, Utah State 4, Kansas State 2.

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UNC statistics

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Date	Month/day	Time/score	Opponent/event (current ranking)	Location	Record
	October
28	Friday	W, 101–40	Johnson C. Smith	Home	Exhibition
	November
7	Monday	W, 69–56	UNCW	Home	1–0
11	Friday	W, 102–86	College of Charleston	Home	2–0
15	Tuesday	W, 72–66	Gardner-Webb	Home	3–0
20	Sunday	W, 80–64	James Madison	Home	4–0
			Phil Knight Invitational
24	Thursday	W, 89–81	First round: Portland	Portland	5–0
25	Friday	L, 70–65	Semifinals: Iowa State	Portland	5–1
27	Sunday	L, 103–101, 4 OTs	Consolation: No. 1 Alabama	Portland	5–2
			ACC/Big Ten Challenge
30	Wednesday	L, 77–65	No. 21 Indiana	Bloomington, Ind.	5–3
	December
4	Sunday	L, 80–72	Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, Va.	5–4, 0–1 ACC
10	Saturday	W, 75–59	Georgia Tech	Home	6–4, 1–1 ACC
13	Tuesday	W, 100–67	The Citadel	Home	7–4
			CBS Sports Classic
17	Saturday	W, 89–84, OT	Ohio State	New York	8–4
			Jumpman Invitational
21	Wednesday	W, 80–76	Michigan	Charlotte	9–4
30	Friday	L, 76–74	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh	9–5, 1–2 ACC
	January
4	Wednesday	W, 88–79	Wake Forest	Home	10–5, 2–2 ACC
7	Saturday	W, 81–64	Notre Dame	Home	11–5, 3–2 ACC
10	Tuesday	L, 65–58	No. 14 Virginia	Charlottesville	11–6, 3–3 ACC
14	Saturday	W, 80–59	Louisville	Louisville, Ky.	12–6, 4–3 ACC
17	Tuesday	W, 72–64	Boston College	Home	13–6, 5–3 ACC
21	Saturday	W, 80–69	N.C. State	Home	14–6, 6–3 ACC
24	Tuesday	W, 72–68	Syracuse	Syracuse, N.Y.	15–6, 7–3 ACC
	February
1	Wednesday	L, 65–64	Pittsburgh	Home	15–7, 7–4 ACC
4	Saturday	L, 63–57	No. 12 Duke	Durham	15–8, 7–5 ACC
7	Tuesday	L, 92–85	Wake Forest	Winston-Salem	15–9, 7–6 ACC
11	Saturday	W, 91–71	Clemson	Home	16–9, 8–6 ACC
13	Monday	L, 80–72	No. 16 Miami	Home	16–10, 8–7 ACC
19	Sunday	L, 77–69	N.C. State	Raleigh	16–11, 8–8 ACC
22	Wednesday	W, 63–59	Notre Dame	South Bend, Ind.	17–11, 9–8 ACC
25	Saturday	W, 71–63	No. 14 Virginia	Home	18–11, 10–8 ACC
27	Monday	W, 77–66	Florida State	Tallahassee, Fla.	19–11, 11–8 ACC
	March
4	Saturday	L, 62–57	No. 12 Duke	Home	19–12, 11–9 ACC
			ACC tournament
8	Wednesday	W, 85–61	Boston College	Greensboro	20–12
9	Thursday	L, 68–59	No. 14 Virginia	Greensboro	20–13

Photo via @GoHeels