Posted at 9:19 a.m., Monday, December 3, 2007
CBKB: North Carolina remains No. 1 in AP men's poll
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
North Carolina was No. 1 today, as it has been since the preseason poll, but Memphis and Kansas both moved up one spot to second and third, while Texas used its win over UCLA to vault from eighth to fourth.
Georgetown remained fifth, Duke moved up one spot to sixth and UCLA dropped five places after the 63-61 home loss to the Longhorns on Sunday.
The Tar Heels (7-0), who won road games against Ohio State and Kentucky last week, received 45 first-place votes and 1,769 points from the 72-member national media panel.
Memphis (6-0), which beat Austin Peay in its only game last week, was No. 1 on 22 ballots and had 1,717 points.
Kansas (7-0) also had a road win in Los Angeles on Sunday, beating Southern California 59-55. The Jayhawks and Texas (7-0) both received two first-place votes. Georgetown (5-0), which beat Old Dominion and Fairfield last week, got the only other No. 1 vote.
Washington State was eighth while Michigan State and Tennessee rounded out the top 10.
Marquette was 11th followed by Pittsburgh, Butler, Louisville, Indiana, Texas A&M, Gonzaga, Clemson, Oregon and BYU.
The last five ranked teams were Xavier, Arizona, Vanderbilt, Southern California and Villanova.
Arizona, Vanderbilt and Villanova moved into the Top 25, replacing Wisconsin, North Carolina State and Kansas State.
Arizona (5-2) moved back into the rankings off Sunday's 78-67 victory over previously unbeaten Texas A&M. The Wildcats, who have lost to Virginia and Kansas, were No. 17 in the preseason and first regular-season poll then fell out for two weeks.
Vanderbilt (7-0) moved in for the first time this season off a 92-79 victory over Georgia Tech. The Commodores, who have won at Toledo and Bradley, were ranked for four weeks late last season, reaching as high as 17th.
Villanova (5-1) returned after one week out of the Top 25. The Wildcats beat Penn 87-61 in their only game last week after falling out from 20th following a loss to North Carolina State in the championship game of the Old Spice Classic.
The three teams that fell out of the poll did so after losses to ranked teams.
Wisconsin (5-1) dropped from 20th after an 82-58 loss at Duke. North Carolina State (4-2) fell from 24th after an 81-58 loss at Michigan State. Kansas State (4-2) dropped from 25th after an 80-77 home loss to Oregon in overtime.
Texas A&M had the week's biggest drop, falling from ninth to No. 16 after the loss at Arizona.
There are three games involving two ranked teams this week. Southern California meets Memphis at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night in the Jimmy V Classic, while Washington State is at Gonzaga on Wednesday night and BYU visits Michigan State on Saturday.
