By R.L. Bynum
North Carolina moved up four spots to No. 18 in the AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll heading into this week’s ACC tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum.
The Tar Heels (20–9) rebounded from a heartbreaking 61–59 senior night loss Thursday against No. 9 Virginia Tech by ruining the senior day for Duke (24–5) on Sunday 45–41.
UNC, the No. 7 seed in the ACC tournament, plays at 6 p.m. Thursday in the second round against the winner of Wednesday’s 3:30 p.m. first-round game between No. 10-seed Clemson (16–13) and No. 15-seed Pittsburgh (10–19). A win there would earn the Tar Heels a quarterfinals matchup at 6 p.m. Friday against Duke, which they swept in the regular season for a second consecutive season.
Carolina moved up one spot in the NET rankings to No. 23 after beating Duke, which fell one spot to No. 9. UNC is 18th in the Massey Ratings. ESPN’s last bracket projection, released before the Duke game, had the Tar Heels as a No. 5 seed.
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The Blue Devils, who beat N.C. State 77–62 on Thursday, fell two spots to No. 13 and will be the No. 2 seed in the ACC tournament.
The Hokies (24–4), the No. 3 seed, move up one spot to No. 8 in the poll after also beating Georgia Tech 65–52. Notre Dame (24–4), the ACC’s regular-season champion and No. 1 seed in the tournament, stayed at No. 10 in the poll after beating Georgia Tech 76–53 and Louisville 68–65.
Florida State (23–8), ranked No. 23 last week, fell out of the poll after beating Wake Forest 61–60 and but losing to Clemson 74–61.
Voting Carolina the highest at No. 12 was Mitchell Northam of WUNC, the only North Carolina-based voter.
Leaving the Tar Heels off their ballots were Brice Cherry of the Waco Tribune-Herald, Danny Davis of the Austin American-Statesman, David Cloninger of The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., and Jeff Linder of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Other voters had UNC No. 14 (2), No. 15 (2), No. 16 (3), No. 17 (3), No. 18 (2), No. 19 (2), No. 21 (4), No. 22 (3) and No 24 (2).
AP Top 25
| Rank | Team | Change | Poll points (1st-place votes) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Carolina (29–0) | — | 700 (28) |
| 2 | Indiana (26–2) | — | 650 |
| 3 | Utah (25–3) | +5 | 599 |
| 4 | LSU (27–1) | +1 | 590 |
| 5 | Maryland (24–5) | +2 | 588 |
| 6 | Stanford (27–4) | -3 | 587 |
| 7 | Iowa (23–6) | -1 | 560 |
| 8 | Virginia Tech (24–4) | +1 | 497 |
| 9 | UConn (25–5) | -5 | 484 |
| 10 | Notre Dame (24–4) | — | 481 |
| 11 | Villanova (25–5) | +4 | 378 |
| 12 | Texas (22–7) | +7 | 355 |
| 13 | Duke (24–5) | -2 | 347 |
| 14 | Ohio State (23–6) | +2 | 331 |
| 15 | Gonzaga (27–3) | +3 | 282 |
| 16 | Oklahoma (22–5) | -3 | 273 |
| 17 | Michigan (21–8) | -5 | 202 |
| 18 | North Carolina (20–9) | +4 | 183 |
| 19 | UCLA (22–8) | -2 | 181 |
| 20 | Colorado (22–7) | +1 | 174 |
| 21 | Arizona (21–8) | -7 | 144 |
| 22 | UNLV (27–2) | +2 | 122 |
| 23 | Iowa State (18–8) | -3 | 115 |
| 24 | Middle Tennessee (23–4) | +1 | 58 |
| 25 | South Florida (25–5) | — | 42 |
Others receiving votes: Creighton 34, Tennessee 31, Florida State 24, Oklahoma State 18, Florida Gulf Coast 13, Ole Miss 13, USC 10, South Dakota State 10, Louisville 8, Toledo 8, Illinois 5, N.C. State 3
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications
