By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina held its spot at No. 3 in the latest AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll after rebounding from its first ACC loss with an impressive 93–84 Saturday win over Duke.

The Tar Heels (18–4, 10–1), who lost 74–73 at Georgia Tech on Tuesday, have a two-game lead in the ACC over Virginia (17–5, 8–3) and lead the Blue Devils (16–5, 7–3), who fell two spots to No. 9, by 2½ games.

UNC’s poll points total fell from 1,441 last week to 1,352 but Kansas (18–4), which went up four spots to No. 4, only got 1,322 poll points.

Carolina, in its 36th season ranked No. 3 or higher, is at home again at 7 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN), going for the season sweep over Clemson (14–7, 4–6), which the Tar Heels beat 65–55 on Jan. 6. The Tar Heels play at Miami (15–7, 6–5) at 4 p.m. Saturday (ESPN).

Four consecutive weeks in the top five matches the 2019 streak when the Tar Heels were No. 3 in the last two polls. UNC hasn’t had a longer such streak since it was in the top 5 for the first nine polls in the 2011–12 season, when the Tar Heels went 32–6 and lost to Kansas in the Elite Eight.

Six consecutive weeks in the top 10 is the longest since doing it 13 straight weeks from Jan. 28, 2019, to Dec. 2, 2019. It’s the longest such streak in one season since UNC was in the top 10 for the final eight 2019 polls.

Voting UNC the highest at No. 2 was Calum McAndew of the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri. Rodd Boxley of the Fayetteville Observer was one of 27 to vote the Heels No. 3. JB Ricks of Spectrum News and Kate Rogerson of WTVD were two of 21 to vote UNC No. 4.

Voting Carolina the lowest at No. 7 were Shane Mettlen of the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va., and Zach Klein of WSB in Atlanta.

In other metrics, UNC is No. 3 in KPI, No. 8 in KenPom, No. 9 in the NET rankings, No. 9 in ESPN’s BPI and No. 11 in Bart Torvik’s T-Rank. Bracket Matrix averages dozens of bracket projections, and has Carolina as the fourth No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

UConn (20–2) remained atop the poll with 45 first-place votes after beating Providence 74–65 and St. John’s 77–64. Purdue (21–2), with the other 16 first-place votes, remained No. 2 after a 105–96 overtime victory over Northwestern and a 75–69 win over Wisconsin.

Including Duke, five teams below UNC in the top 10 of last week’s poll lost:
— Houston (19–3) fell one spot to No. 5 after beating Texas 76–72 in overtime but losing 78–65 to Kansas.
— Tennessee (16–5) dropped one spot to No. 6 after losing 63–59 to South Carolina but winning 103–92 over Kentucky.
— Wisconsin (16–6) is down five spots to No. 11 after losing 80–72 in overtime to Nebraska, in addition to the loss against Purdue.
— Kentucky (15–6) sunk seven spots to No. 17 after losing 94–91 in overtime to Florida, in addition to the defeat against Tennessee.

AP Top 25

Ranking	Team (1st-place vote)	Record	Poll points	Previous
1	UConn (45)	20–2	1,509	1
2	Purdue (16)	21–2	1,479	2
3	North Carolina	18–4	1,352	3
4	Kansas	18–4	1,322	8
5	Houston	19–3	1,273	4
6	Tennessee	16–5	1,211	5
7	Marquette	17–5	1,173	9
8	Arizona	17–5	1,077	11
9	Duke	16–5	924	7
10	Illinois	17–5	893	14
11	Wisconsin	16–6	838	6
12	Auburn	18–4	818	16
13	Baylor	16–5	730	18
14	Iowa State	16–5	700	12
15	South Carolina	19–3	564	NR
16	Alabama	16–6	520	24
17	Kentucky	15–6	513	10
18	Dayton	18–3	493	21
19	Creighton	16–6	484	13
20	Florida Atlantic	18–4	431	20
21	BYU	16–5	425	22
22	Utah State	19–3	286	17
23	Texas Tech	16–5	156	15
24	San Diego State	17–5	141	NR
25	New Mexico	18–4	123	19

Others receiving votes: Saint Mary’s 73, TCU 72, Indiana St. 53, Boise St. 49, Colorado St. 43, Virginia 32, Texas 22, Oklahoma 17, Mississippi 10, Washington St 6, Memphis 5, Appalachian St 4, Gonzaga 2, Grand Canyon 1, Michigan St. 1.

UNC season statistics

Team	League	Overall	NET*
No. 3 Duke	0–0	11–0	2
California	0–0	10–1	63
No. 12 North Carolina	0–0	10–1	15
No. 23 Virginia	0–0	9–1	21
Miami	0–0	10–2	33
Virginia Tech	0–0	10–2	58
No. 11 Louisville	0–0	9–2	17
SMU	0–0	9–2	43
Stanford	0–0	8–2	98
Clemson	0–0	9–3	32
Notre Dame	0–0	9–3	65
Wake Forest	0–0	9–3	59
N.C. State	0–0	8–4	34
Georgia Tech	0–0	7–4	189
Syracuse	0–0	7–4	96
Pittsburgh	0–0	6–6	154
Boston College	0–0	5–6	177
Florida State	0–0	5–6	148

* — Through Wednesday games
Tuesday’s results
No. 12 North Carolina 77, East Tennessee State 58
No. 3 Duke 97, Lipscomb 73
No. 20 Tennessee 83, No. 11 Louisville 62
Dayton 97, Florida State 69
Clemson 68, South Carolina 61
Miami 98, Florida International 81
Georgia Tech 87, Marist 76
Wednesday’s results
N.C. State 108, Texas Southern 72
Pittsburgh 103, Binghamton 6
Syracuse 76, Mercyhurst 62
Wake Forest 71, Longwood 68
UT Arlington at Stanford, 10 p.m., ACCN Extra
Friday’s games
Mississippi Valley State at Florida State, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
Morgan State at California, 10 p.m., ACCN Extra
Saturday’s games
Montana at No. 11 Louisville, noon, ACCN Extra
Lafayette at Georgia Tech, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Elon at Virginia Tech, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Ohio State vs. No. 12 North Carolina at CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta, 3 p.m., CBS
Northeastern at Syracuse, 4 p.m., ACCN Extra
Maryland at No. 23 Virginia, 6 p.m., ESPN
No. 3 Duke at No. 16 Texas Tech, 8 p.m., ESPN
Stanford at Colorado, 8 p.m., ESPNU
Sunday’s games
Penn State vs. Pittsburgh in Hershey, Pa., noon, Big Ten Network
Ole Miss vs. N.C. State in Greensboro, 1 p.m., ESPN
No. 13 Vanderbilt at Wake Forest, 1 p.m., The CW
Purdue Ft. Wayne at Notre Dame, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Central Arkansas at SMU, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Cincinnati vs. Clemson in Greenville, S.C., 3 p.m., ESPN
North Florida at Miami, 4 p.m., ACC Network
Columbia at California, 5 p.m., ACCN Extra
Monday’s games
American at Virginia, 6 p.m., ACCN Extra
Jacksonville at Florida State, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
Stonehill at Syracuse, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
Fairleigh Dickinson at Boston College, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
East Carolina at No. 12 North Carolina, 8 p.m., ACC Network

Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 10 BYU in SLC	Exhib.
29	Wednesday	W, 95–53	vs. Winston-Salem St.	Exhib.
	November
3	Monday	W, 94–54	vs. Central Arkansas	1–0
7	Friday	W, 87–74	vs. No. 17 Kansas	2–0
11	Tuesday	W, 89–74	vs. Radford	3–0
14	Friday	W, 97–53	vs. N.C. Central	4–0
18	Tuesday	W, 73–61	vs. Navy	5–0
			Fort Myers Tip-Off
25	Tuesday	W, 85–70	vs. St. Bonaventure	6–0
27	Thursday	L, 74–58	vs. No. 9 Michigan State	6–1
	December		ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
2	Tuesday	W, 67–64	at Kentucky	7–1
			—————————
7	Sunday	W, 81–61	vs. Georgetown	8–1
13	Saturday	W, 80–62	vs. USC Upstate	9–1
16	Tuesday	W, 77–58	vs. East Tennessee State	10–1
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	3 p.m.	vs. Ohio State	CBS
			—————————
22	Monday	8 p.m.	vs. East Carolina	ACCN
30	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Florida State	ESPN2
	January
3	Saturday	2:15	at SMU	The CW
10	Saturday	6 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ACCN
14	Wednesday	9 p.m.	at Stanford	ACCN
17	Saturday	4 p.m.	at California	ACCN
21	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. Notre Dame	ESPN2
24	Saturday	2 or 2:30	at No. 23 Virginia	ESPN or ESPNU
31	Saturday	2 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
	February
2	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	ESPN
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2
14	Saturday	2 p.m.	vs. Pittsburgh	ESPN
17	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN or ESPN2
21	Saturday	1 p.m.	at Syracuse	ABC
23	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 11 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte