By R.L. Bynum

Carolina moved up a spot to No. 9 in the AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll Monday after winning at Virginia 54–44 in its only game last week.

The ACC-leading Tar Heels (22–6, 14–3 ACC) played the first of three consecutive home games Monday, beating Miami (15–4, 6–12) 75–71.

UNC, ranked for the 953rd time in AP poll history (the second-most), leapfrogged over Duke (21–6, 12–4), which fell two spots to No. 10 after rolling to an 84–55 road win over Miami but losing 83–79 at Wake Forest.

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Nine consecutive weeks in the top 10 is Carolina’s longest streak in one season since the 2016 Final Four team was No. 9 or better — peaking at No. 2 — in the last 13 polls. The Tar Heels were in the top 10 for 13 straight weeks over two seasons from Jan. 28, 2019, to Dec. 2, 2019.

Carolina is in the top 10 for the 701st time, the third-most all-time, and the 12th time this season.

UNC went from 1,044 poll points last week to 1,130, the most since garnering 1,352 when the Heels were ranked No. 3 on Feb. 5.

Ranking Carolina the highest at No. 4 was Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star, and ranking it the lowest at No. 12 was Brian Holland of WVLA-TV/WGMB-TV in Baton Rouge, La.

JB Ricks of Spectrum News was one of four who voted UNC No. 5. Ten voters had the Heels No. 6, nine voted them No. 7 and 15 had them No. 8. Kate Rogerson of WTVD and Rodd Baxley of The Fayetteville Observer were two of the 18 voters who had UNC No. 9.

In other metrics, UNC is 3rd in KPI, 8th in KenPom, 9th in the NET rankings, 10 in T-Rank and 11th in BPI.

On Bracket Matrix, the average of 100 bracket projections has UNC as the top No. 2 seed, with eight projecting the Tar Heels as a No. 1 seed and three projecting them as a No. 3 seed. The margin between UNC and Caleb Love’s Arizona team, projected as the fourth No. 1 seed, is much higher (1.11–1.94) than UNC’s margin over Tennessee (1.94–1.99) for the top No. 2 seed.

One of the projections with UNC as a No. 1 seed is from Jerry Palm at CBS, whose updated Monday projection has the Tar Heels the top seed in the West Regional at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, with Arizona as the No. 2 seed. As with every projection, Carolina would play first- and second-round games at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center.

Houston (24–3) moved up a spot to supplant UConn (25–3) as the No. 1 team after wins over No. 6 Iowa (73–65) and No. 11 Baylor (82–76 in overtime). The Huskies lost 85–66 to Creighton (which moved up three spots to No. 12) before beating Villanova 87–54 and fell two spots to No. 3.

The only other team in the top 10 of last week’s poll to lose was Arizona (21–6), which slipped two spots to No. 6 after losing 77–74 at home to Washington State but winning at home against Washington 91–75.

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AP Top 25

Ranking	Team (1st-place votes)	Record	Poll points	Previous
1	Houston (53)	24–3	1,540	2
2	Purdue (4)	25–3	1,460	3
3	UConn (5)	25–3	1,459	1
4	Tennessee	21–6	1,338	3
5	Marquette	21–6	1,243	7
6	Arizona	21–6	1,188	4
7	Kansas	21–6	1,156	9
8	Iowa State	21–6	1,155	6
9	North Carolina	21–6	1,130	10
10	Duke	21–6	976	8
11	Auburn	21–6	862	14
12	Creighton	20–8	783	15
13	Illinois	20–7	726	12
14	Alabama	19–8	695	13
15	Baylor	19–8	689	11
16	Kentucky	19–8	649	17
17	Saint Mary’s	23–6	646	18
18	South Carolina	22–5	471	20
19	Washington State	21–7	361	21
20	San Diego State	21–7	305	19
21	Dayton	21–5	261	16
22	Utah State	22–5	207	NR
23	Gonzaga	22–6	184	NR
24	Florida	19–8	140	NR
25	South Florida	21–5	127	NR

Others receiving votes: BYU 92, Texas Tech 65, Clemson 45, TCU 45, Wake Forest 44, Wisconsin 42, Nevada 25, Colorado St. 20, Arizona St 17, New Mexico 10, FAU 8, Oklahoma 7, Nebraska 7, Mississippi St. 5, Washington 4, Appalachian St 3, Northwestern 1, Boise St. 1, McNeese St. 1, Indiana St 1, Loyola Chicago 1.

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Team	League	Overall	NET*
No. 4 Duke	10–1	21–2	3
No. 20 Clemson	10–1	20–4	30
No. 15 Virginia	9–2	20–3	17
N.C. State	9–3	18–7	29
No. 11 North Carolina	7–3	19–4	22
Miami	7–3	18–5	37
No. 24 Louisville	8–4	18–6	14
SMU	5–5	16–7	34
California	5–6	17–7	58
Virginia Tech	5–6	16–8	55
Florida State	4–6	11–12	95
Stanford	4–7	15–9	68
Syracuse	4–7	13–11	71
Wake Forest	2–8	11–12	67
Boston College	2–8	9–14	148
Georgia Tech	2–9	11–13	151
Notre Dame	2–9	11–13	89
Pittsburgh	2–9	9–15	123

* — Through Monday games
Saturday’s results
N.C. State 82, Virginia Tech 71
No. 15 Virginia 72, Syracuse 59
No. 24 Louisville 88, Wake Forest 80
Miami 74, Boston College 68
SMU 86, Pittsburgh 67
Florida State 82, Notre Dame 79
No. 11 North Carolina 71, No. 4 Duke 68
No. 20 Clemson 77, California 55
Stanford 95, Georgia Tech 72
Monday’s result
No. 24 Louisville 118, N.C. State 77
Tuesday’s games
No. 11 North Carolina at Miami, 7 p.m., ESPN
No. 15 Virginia at Florida State, 7 p.m., ESPNU
Notre Dame at SMU, 7 p.m., ACC Network
No. 4 Duke at Pittsburgh, 9 p.m., ESPN
Wednesday’s games
Virginia Tech at No. 20 Clemson, ACC Network
California at Syracuse, 7 p.m., ESPNU
Wake Forest at Georgia Tech, 9 p.m., ACC Network
Stanford at Boston College, 9 p.m., ESPNU
Saturday’s games
No. 20 Clemson at No. 4 Duke, noon, ESPN
Georgia Tech at Notre Dame, noon, The CW
California at Boston College, noon, ACC Network
Pittsburgh at No. 11 North Carolina, 2 p.m., ESPN
Florida State at Virginia Tech, 2 p.m., ACC Network
SMU at Syracuse, 2 p.m., The CW
No. 24 Louisville vs. Baylor in Fort Worth, Texas, 4 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2
Stanford at Wake Forest, 4 p.m., ACC Network
Miami at N.C. State, 4 p.m., ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU
No. 15 Virginia vs. Ohio State in Nashville, 8 p.m., Fox

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Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 22 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. 9 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 No. 25 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. 15 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	W, 71–68	vs. No. 4 Duke	19–4, 7–3
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