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.

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.

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.

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