UNC Basketball: Tar Heel women back in Associated Press Top 25

The UNC women’s basketball program is back in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll after being unranked last week.

The North Carolina women’s basketball program was in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll for seven consecutive weeks before falling out of the poll last week. Their absence from the poll lasted just one week, though, as they are back on the right side of the top 25 this week.

And according to the Tar Heels, they’re right where they belong.

"“I think we’re about a top 15, 20 team in the country,” UNC head coach Courtney Banghart said. “If you’re looking at the body of work, which is what you’re supposed to do, and you’re getting your eyes on this team, I think that speaks for itself.”"

They re-enter the poll at No. 24 following a week in which they went 1-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They put on a tremendous performance in a midweek game against the Duke Blue Devils, beating their crosstown rival by a convincing 16-point margin at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Blue Devils were ranked No. 21 prior to their difficult week, one that also included a 77-65 defeat to the now fourth-ranked Louisville Cardinals. Duke is now out of the poll at No. 26, which helped the Tar Heels slide back into the mid-twenties position where they spent much of the past two months.

The Tar Heels followed up their game against Duke with a hard-fought eight-point loss to the NC State Wolfpack — their second loss of the season to their Raleigh rival — who are currently ranked third in the nation with a 19-2 record overall and a 5-0 mark in ACC play.

The Tar Heels are No. 5 in the NET rankings, No. 13 in the Massey Ratings and No. 24 in RPI. They’ve got games at Wake Forest and against Miami this week.

Check back with Keeping It Heel for coverage of those games and everything on the UNC women’s basketball program.