By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina held the No. 9 spot in the latest AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll after the Tar Heels (7–2) gave No. 5 UConn a good game on Tuesday in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden before losing 87–76.

They face another ranked team when they play Kentucky at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Atlanta (CBS) at the CBS Sports Classic. The Wildcats (7–2) moved up two spots to No. 14 after an 81–66 victory over Penn.

Carolina is No. 11 in ESPN’s power rankings, No. 15 in the Bart Torvik rankings, No. 16 in the KenPom rankings and No. 36 in the NET rankings.

Caleb Love’s Arizona team (8–0) remained at No. 1 after an 89–73 home victory over No. 23 Wisconsin, and the top 6 remained unchanged.

Clemson (9–0) was the biggest riser, going up 11 spots to No. 13 after beating South Carolina 72–67 and TCU 74–66.

Oklahoma (9–0), which plays UNC in Charlotte at the Jumpman Invitational on Dec. 20, moved up eight slots to No. 11 after beating Providence 72–51 and Arkansas 79–70.

Other ranked teams losing last week were:
—Gonzaga (7–2), which fell three spots to No. 10 after a 78–73 loss to Washington.
—Florida Atlantic (7–2), which lost 98–89 to Illinois in the first Jimmy V Classic game Tuesday and fell four spots to No. 15.
—Texas (7–2), which dropped seven spots to No. 19 after losing 86–76 to Marquette (which moved up one spot to No. 7).
—Colorado State (9–1), which fell four spots to No. 17 after a 64–61 loss to Saint Mary’s.
—BYU (8–1), which dropped four spots to No. 18 after a 73–69 setback against Utah.
—Miami (7–2), which fell nine spots to No. 24 after a 90–63 loss to Colorado.
—Illinois (7–2), which moved up four spots to No.. 16 despite following up the FAU win with an 86–79 loss to Tennessee.
—Texas A&M (7–3), previously No. 21, which fell out of the poll after an 81–75 loss to Memphis.
—Wisconsin (7–3), which stayed at No. 23 after a 98–73 loss to No. 1 Arizona.
—San Diego State (8–2), previously No. 25, which fell out of the poll after a 79–73 loss to Grand Canyon.

The only ACC team in the poll besides Clemson, Miami and UNC is Duke, which moved up one spot to No. 21 after an 80–56 home win over Charlotte.

JB Ricks of Spectrum News and Kate Rogerson of WTVD had UNC No. 11 and Luke DeCock of The News & Observer voted UNC No. 12.

Ranking Carolina the highest at No. 8 were Bob Holt of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Brenna Greene of KOIN TV, ESPN’s Dick Vitale, Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and Kevin McNamara of The Providence Journal.

Ranking UNC the lowest at No. 15 was Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star.

AP Top 25

Rank	Team	Record	Poll points	Previous
1	Arizona (62 1st-place votes)	8-0	1,574	1
2	Kansas	9-1	1,461	2
3	Purdue	9-1	1,424	4
4	Houston (1)	10-0	1,416	3
5	UConn	9-1	1,344	5
6	Baylor	9-0	1,239	6
7	Marquette	8-2	1,221	8
8	Creighton	8-1	1,073	10
9	North Carolina	7-2	992	9
10	Gonzaga	7-2	860	7
11	Oklahoma	9-0	848	19
12	Tennessee	6-3	835	17
13	Clemson	9-0	746	24
14	Kentucky	7-2	677	16
15	Florida Atlantic	7-2	622	11
16	Illinois	7-2	589	20
17	Colorado State	9-1	522	13
18	BYU	8-1	503	14
19	Texas	7-2	451	12
20	James Madison	9-0	441	18
21	Duke	6-3	315	22
22	Virginia	8-1	300	NR
23	Wisconsin	7-3	213	23
24	Miami	7-2	156	15
25	Northwestern	7-1	147	NR

Others receiving votes: Colorado 116, Mississippi 86, Texas A&M 58, Auburn 57, Memphis 56, Alabama 43, Utah 25, Iowa St. 20, Ohio St. 9, Providence 7, San Diego St. 7, TCU 6, Nevada 5, South Carolina 3, New Mexico 2, Washington 2, Kansas St 1, Grand Canyon 1, Dayton 1, Saint Joseph’s 1.

UNC season statistics

Date	Month/day	Score	Opponent/event (current ranks)	Record
	October
27	Friday	W, 117–53	vs. St. Augustine’s	Exhibition
	November
6	Monday	W, 86–70	vs. Radford	1–0
12	Sunday	W, 90–68	vs. Lehigh	2–0
17	Friday	W, 77–52	vs. UC Riverside	3–0
			Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas
22	Wednesday	W, 91–69	Northern Iowa	4–0
23	Thursday	L, 83–81, OT	Villanova	4–1
24	Friday	W, 87–72	Arkansas	5–1
			ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
29	Wednesday	W, 100–92	vs. No. 6 Tennessee	6–1
	December
2	Saturday	W, 78–70	vs. Florida State	7–1, 1–0 ACC
			Jimmy V Classic in New York
5	Tuesday	L, 87–67	No. `1` Connecticut	7–2
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
16	Saturday	L, 87–83	No. 12 Kentucky	7–3
			Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte
20	Wednesday	W, 81–69	Oklahoma	8–3
			—————————
29	Friday	W, 105–60	vs. Charleston Southern	9–3
	January
2	Tuesday	W, 70–57	at Pittsburgh	10–3, 2–0 ACC
6	Saturday	W, 65–55	at Clemson	11–3, 3–0 ACC
10	Wednesday	W, 67–54	at N.C. State	12–3, 4–0 ACC
13	Saturday	W, 103–67	vs. Syracuse	13–3, 5–0 ACC
17	Wednesday	W, 86–70	vs. Louisville	14–3, 6–0 ACC
20	Saturday	W, 76–66	vs. Boston College	15–3, 7–0 ACC
22	Monday	W, 85–64	vs. Wake Forest	16–3, 8–0 ACC
27	Saturday	W, 75–68	at Florida State	17–3, 9–0 ACC
30	Tuesday	L, 74–73	at Georgia Tech	17–4, 9–1 ACC
	February
3	Saturday	W, 93–84	vs. No. 13 Duke	18–4, 10–1 ACC
6	Tuesday	L, 80–76	vs. Clemson	18–5, 10–2 ACC
10	Saturday	W, 75–72	at Miami	19–5, 11–2 ACC
13	Tuesday	L, 86–79	at Syracuse	19–6, 11–3 ACC
17	Saturday	W, 96–81	vs. Virginia Tech	20–6, 12–3 ACC
24	Saturday	W, 54–44	at Virginia	21–6, 13–3 ACC
26	Monday	W, 75–71	vs. Miami	22–6, 14–3 ACC
	March
2	Saturday	W, 79–70	vs. N.C. State	23–6, 15–3 ACC
5	Tuesday	W, 84–51	vs. Notre Dame	24–6, 16–3 ACC
9	Saturday	W, 84–79	at No. 13 Duke	25–6, 17–3 ACC
			ACC tournament Washington
14	Thursday	W, 92–67	Quarterfinals: Florida State	26–6
15	Friday	W, 72–65	Semifinals: Pittsburgh	27–6
16	Saturday	L, 84–76	Final: N.C. State	27–7
			NCAA tournament
21	Thursday	W, 90–62	First round in Charlotte: Wagner	28–7
23	Saturday	W, 85–69	Second round in Charlotte: Michigan State	29–7
28	Thursday	L, 89–87	Sweet 16 in Los Angeles: No. 19 Alabama	29–8