By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina held onto the No. 16 spot in the AP Top 25 men’s poll on Monday after splitting two games at the Fort Myers Tip-Off last week.

The Tar Heels (6–1) beat St. Bonaventure 85–70 but lost 74–58 to Michigan State (7–0), which moved up four spots to No. 7. Carolina is 26th in the first NET rankings of the season, which were released on Monday morning.

UNC faces another ranked team at 9:35 Tuesday (ESPN) when it visits Kentucky (5–2), which moved up one spots to No. 18 after rolling to a 104–54 victory over Tennessee Tech.

Two other ACC teams are in the poll: Duke (8–0), which stayed at No 4 after beating Arkansas 80–71 in Chicago, and Louisville (7–0), which stayed at No. 6 after beating Eastern Michigan 87–46 and NJIT 104–47.

N.C. State (5–2), No. 23 in last week’s poll, is unranked after losing two of three games at the Maui Invitational, beating Boise State 81–70 but losing 85–74 to Seton Hall and 102–97 to Texas.

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Elliot Cadeau’s Michigan team (7–0) and Vanderbilt (8–0), with Tyler Nickel and Jalen Washington, both stayed undefeated after going 3–0 to win tournament titles. The Wolverines jumped four spots to No. 3 after winning the Players Era Championship and the Commodores surged seven spots, the biggest jump this week, to No. 17 after winning the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Ian Jackson’s St. John’s team (4–3) dropped nine spots to No. 23, the largest drop this week, after dropping two of three games at the Players Era Championship.

Kansas returned to the Top 25 at No. 21.

Ranking UNC the highest at No. 11 were John Johnson of WXII-TV in Winston-Salem and Scott Richey of The News-Gazette in Champaign, Ill. Voting the Tar Heels the lowest at No. 25 is Shane Mettlen of the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va. He’s ranked UNC the lowest every week.

Kate Rogerson of WTVD voted UNC No. 15 and Chris Lea of WRAL had the Tar Heels No. 16 on his ballot.

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AP Top 25

Rank	School (1st-place votes)	Record	Poll points	Previous
1	Purdue (40)	7–0	1,494	1
2	Arizona (6)	7–0	1,442	2
3	Michigan (15)	7–0	1,417	7
4	Duke	8–0	1,355	4
5	UConn	6–1	1,244	5
6	Louisville	7–0	1,177	6
7	Michigan State	7–0	1,095	11
8	Houston	7–1	1,070	3
9	BYU	6–1	1,037	9
10	Iowa State	7–0	975	15
11	Gonzaga	7–1	934	12
12	Alabama	5–2	869	8
13	Tennessee	7–1	771	17
14	Illinois	6–2	657	13
15	Florida	5–2	568	10
16	North Carolina	6–1	519	16
17	Vanderbilt	8–0	475	24
18	Kentucky	5–2	451	19
19	Texas Tech	6–2	387	20
20	Auburn	6–2	376	21
21	Kansas	6–2	340	NR
22	Indiana	7–0	313	25
23	St. John’s	4–3	200	14
24	Southern Cal.	7–0	145	NR
25	Arkansas	5–2	127	22

Others receiving votes: Iowa 100, UCLA 59, Nebraska 53, TCU 36, Missouri 28, Utah St. 16, Saint Mary’s 15, Baylor 13, Oklahoma St. 12, SMU 12, Clemson 11, LSU 7, Seton Hall 6, Wisconsin 6, N.C. State 5, Wake Forest 3, California 2, Colorado 1, George Mason 1, Buffalo 1.

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Team	League	Overall	NET*	WAB*
No. 1 Duke	17–1	29–2	1	2
No. 10 Virginia	15–3	27–4	13	11
Miami	13–5	24–7	32	28
No. 19 North Carolina	12–6	24–7	23	19
Clemson	12–6	22–9	36	33
No. 24 Louisville	11–7	22–9	14	25
N.C. State	10–8	19–12	35	45
Florida State	10–8	17–14	69	74
California	9–9	21–10	65	49
Stanford	9–9	20–11	59	51
SMU	8–10	19–12	39	50
Virginia Tech	8–10	19–12	53	52
Wake Forest	7–11	16–15	64	81
Syracuse	6–12	15–16	83	92
Pittsburgh	5–13	12–19	109	146
Notre Dame	4–14	13–18	93	121
Boston College	4–14	11–20	159	217
Georgia Tech	2–16	11–20	167	210

* — Through Sunday games
Saturday’s results
No. 1 Duke 76, No. 19 North Carolina 61
Boston College 77, Notre Dame 69
Clemson 79, Georgia Tech 76
No. 24 Louisville 92, Miami 89
Florida State 92, SMU 78
Stanford 85, N.C. State 84
Wake Forest 80, California 73
Pittsburgh 71, Syracuse 69, OT
END OF REGULAR SEASON
ACC tournament
Spectrum Center | Charlotte
Tuesday through Saturday

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Date	Month/day	Scores	Opponent/event (current ranks)	Record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. 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. 11 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. 9 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. 1 Duke	19–4, 7–3
10	Tuesday	L, 75–66	at No. 25 Miami	19–5, 7–4
14	Saturday	W, 79–65	vs. Pittsburgh	20–5, 8–4
17	Tuesday	L, 82–58	at N.C. State	20–6, 8–5
21	Saturday	W, 77–64	at Syracuse	21–6, 9–5
23	Monday	W, 77–74	vs. Louisville	22–6, 10–5
28	Saturday	W, 89–82	vs. Virginia Tech	23–6, 11–5
	March
3	Tuesday	W, 67–63	vs. Clemson	24–6, 12–5
7	Saturday	L, 76–61	at No. 1 Duke	24–7, 12–6
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte
12	Thursday	L, 80–79	Quarterfinals: vs. Clemson	24–8
		NCAA tournament
19	Thursday	L, 82–78, OT	First round: vs. VCU in Greenville, S.C.	24–9

Photo courtesy of Intersport