By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina fell three spots to No. 10 in the AP Top 25 men’s poll Monday as the Tar Heels were one of four top-10 teams in last week’s poll to lose.

The league-leading Tar Heels (20–6, 12–3 ACC) split a pair of ACC games last week, losing 86–79 at Syracuse on Tuesday before beating Virginia Tech 96–81 at home on Saturday. Carolina’s 1,044 poll points were its fewest since garnering 954 in the Dec. 25 poll, when it was No. 9.

UNC has a half-game ACC lead over Duke (20–5, 11–3), which slid up one spot to No. 8 after wins over Wake Forest (77–69) and Florida State (76–67). That extended the Blue Devils’ win streak to four since their 93–84 loss at UNC on Feb. 3, when Jeremy Roach says Duke got “punked”.

Duke can tie Carolina, which doesn’t have a mid-week game, for the ACC lead with a victory at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Miami (ESPN).

Virginia (20–7, 11–5), which is 1½ games back of UNC, was No. 21 but fell out of the poll with the 26th-most poll points after losing at home to Pittsburgh 74–63 but beating Wake Forest 49–47 in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers, who lost 75–41 at Virginia Tech on Monday, host Carolina at 4 p.m. Saturday (ESPN).

Eight consecutive weeks in the top 10 matches Carolina’s longest streak during one season since doing it for the final eight 2019 polls. It’s the longest top-10 streak since the Tar Heels did it 13 straight weeks over two seasons from Jan. 28, 2019, to Dec. 2, 2019.

Voting UNC the highest at No. 5 was Chris Murray of Nevada Sports Net, and Darnell Dickers of the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah, voted the Tar Heels the lowest at No. 13. Two voters, including Dick Vitale had UNC No. 6, with eight — including Rodd Baxley of The Fayetteville Observer — putting the Tar Heels No. 7 and eight voting UNC No. 8.

Kate Rogerson of WTVD and JB Ricks of Spectrum News each voted Carolina No. 10.

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In other metrics, UNC is sixth in KPI, ninth in the NET rankings, 10th in KenPom, and 12th in both BPI and Bart Torvik’s T-Rank.

Although the average of 102 bracket projections on Bracket Matrix has Carolina as the third-highest seeded No. 2 team, the Tar Heels were the top No. 2 team in the NCAA tournament’s early bracket reveal on Saturday before their win over Virginia Tech.

Teams ahead of UNC in last week’s poll to lose were:
—Purdue (23–3), which fell one spot to No. 3 after a 73–69 loss to unranked Ohio State days after the Buckeyes fired head coach Chris Holtmann.
—Marquette (19–6), which dropped three spots to No. 7 after losing 81–53 to No. 1 UConn.
—Kansas (20–6), which fell three spots to No. 9 after losing 79–50 at Texas Tech and beating Oklahoma 67–57.

South Carolina suffered the largest fall in the poll, plummeting nine spots to No. 20 after losing to Auburn 101–61 and LSU 64–63.

Caleb Love’s Arizona team (20–5) moved up one spot to No. 4 after a 105–60 home win over rival Arizona State.

Kerwin Walton’s Texas Tech team (18–7) returned to the poll at No. 23 after a one-week absence after the Red Raiders followed up the win over Kansas with an 82–74 loss at Iowa State (20–5), which jumped four spots to No. 6.

UNC is 2–2 against teams currently ranked, with wins against No. 5 Tennessee (19–6) and No. 8 Duke and losses against No. 1 UConn (24–2) and No. 17 Kentucky (18–7).

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AP Top 25

Ranking	Team	Record	Poll points	Previous
1	UConn (62 first-place votes)	24–2	1,550	1
2	Houston	22–3	1,473	3
3	Purdue	23–3	1,414	2
4	Arizona	20–5	1,373	5
5	Tennessee	19–6	1,230	8
6	Iowa State	20–5	1,160	10
7	Marquette	19–6	1,114	4
8	Duke	20–5	1,116	9
9	Kansas	20–6	1,065	6
10	North Carolina	20–6	1,044	7
11	Baylor	19–6	959	12
12	Illinois	19–6	853	14
13	Alabama	18–7	803	15
14	Auburn	20–6	690	13
15	Creighton	19–7	612	17
16	Dayton	21–4	584	16
17	Kentucky	18–7	540	22
18	Saint Mary’s (CA)	21–6	486	18
19	San Diego State	20–6	374	NR
20	South Carolina	21–5	346	11
21	Washington State	20–6	215	NR
22	Colorado State	20–6	171	NR
23	Texas Tech	18–7	135	NR
24	Florida	18–7	124	NR
25	BYU	18–7	123	19

Others receiving votes: Virginia 103, Gonzaga 99, Wisconsin 88, Michigan State 64, TCU 54, South Florida 45, New Mexico 27, FAU 27, Utah State 22, Grand Canyon 16, Nevada 11, Pittsburgh 4, Clemson 3, Appalachian State 1, McNeese 1, Drake 1.

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UNC season statistics

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Team	League	Overall	NET*
No. 4 Duke	9–0	20–1	2
No. 20 Clemson	8–1	18–4	31
No. 18 Virginia	7–2	18–3	18
N.C. State	7–2	16–6	26
No. 14 North Carolina	6–3	18–4	25
Miami	6–3	17–5	39
No. 24 Louisville	5–4	15–6	17
Virginia Tech	5–5	16–7	56
SMU	4–4	15–6	34
California	4–5	16–6	51
Syracuse	4–6	13–10	78
Stanford	3–6	14–8	77
Florida State	3–6	10–12	102
Boston College	2–6	9–12	152
Georgia Tech	2–7	11–11	143
Notre Dame	2–7	11–11	85
Wake Forest	2–7	11–11	70
Pittsburgh	2–7	9–13	114

* — Through Saturday games
Saturday’s games
No. 14 North Carolina 91, Georgia Tech 75
No. 4 Duke 72, Virginia Tech 58
N.C. State 96, Wake Forest 78
No. 20 Clemson 63, Pittsburgh 52
No. 18 Virginia 73, Boston College 66
No. 24 Louisville 88, SMU 74
California 86, Miami 81
Florida State 88, Stanford 80
Syracuse 86, Notre Dame 72
Monday’s game
No. 14 North Carolina 87, Syracuse 77
Tuesday’s games
Boston College at No. 4 Duke, 7 p.m., ACC Network
Pittsburgh at No. 18 Virginia, 9 p.m., ACC Network
N.C. State at SMU, 9 p.m, ESPN2
Wednesday’s games
Notre Dame at No. 24 Louisville, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Georgia Tech at California, 8 p.m., ACC Network
No. 20 Clemson at Stanford, 10 p.m., ACC Network
Saturday’s games
Virginia Tech at N.C. State, noon, The CW
Syracuse at No. 18 Virginia, noon, ESPN
No. 24 Louisville at Wake Forest, noon, ACC Network
Miami at Boston College, 2 p.m., ACC Network
SMU at Pittsburgh, 2 p.m., The CW
Florida State at Notre Dame, 4 p.m., The CW
No. 4 Duke at No. 14 North Carolina, 6:30, ESPN
No. 20 Clemson at California, 8 p.m., ACC Network
Georgia Tech at Stanford, 8 p.m., ESPNU

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Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 16 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. 11 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. 10 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. ETSU	10–1
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	W, 71–70	vs. Ohio State	11–1
			—————————
22	Monday	W, 99–51	vs. East Carolina	12–1
30	Tuesday	W, 79–66	vs. Florida State	13–1, 1–0 ACC
	January
3	Saturday	L, 97–83	at SMU	13–2, 1–1
10	Saturday	W, 87–84	vs. Wake Forest	14–2, 2–1
14	Wednesday	L, 95–90	at Stanford	14–3, 2–2
17	Saturday	L, 84–78	at California	14–4, 2–3
21	Wednesday	W, 91–69	vs. Notre Dame	15–4, 3–3
24	Saturday	W, 85–80	at No. 18 Virginia	16–4, 4–3
31	Saturday	W, 91–75	at Georgia Tech	17–4, 5–3
	February
2	Monday	W, 87–77	vs. Syracuse	18–4, 6–3
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 4 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. 24 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 20 Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 4 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte

Photo via @UNC_Basketball