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.
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).
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.
UNC season statistics
ACC standings
| Team | League | Overall |
|---|---|---|
| No. 4 North Carolina | 17–3 | 25–6 |
| No. 11 Duke | 15–5 | 24–7 |
| Virginia | 13–7 | 22–9 |
| Pittsburgh | 12–8 | 21–10 |
| Clemson | 11–9 | 21–10 |
| Syracuse | 11–9 | 20–11 |
| Wake Forest | 11–9 | 19–12 |
| Virginia Tech | 10–10 | 18–13 |
| Florida State | 10–10 | 16–15 |
| N.C. State | 9–11 | 17–13 |
| Boston College | 8–12 | 17–14 |
| Georgia Tech | 7–12 | 14–17 |
| Notre Dame | 7–13 | 12–19 |
| Miami | 6–14 | 15–16 |
| Louisville | 3–17 | 8–22 |
Saturday’s games
No. 4 North Carolina 84, No. 11 Duke 79
Virginia Tech 82, Notre Dame 76
Florida State 83, Miami 75
Boston College 67, Louisville 61
Wake Forest 81, Clemson 76
Pittsburgh 81, N.C. State 73
Virginia 72, Georgia Tech 57
ACC tournament
March 12–16, Capitol One Arena, Washington
| 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 |
Photo via @UNC_Basketball
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