UNC Basketball Programs See Significant Change in Most Recent Associated Press Poll

The UNC Women's Basketball program re-entered the AP Top 25 last week after being removed from the rankings the previous week, and the reward was a road trip to ACC Foe and No. 21 Florida State. The Tar Heels weren't able to secure a sixth-straight victory, though, and dropped their first game since December 10th to the Seminoles, 70-62.

As expected, that loss meant North Carolina was going to drop in this week's AP Poll, regardless of what was accomplished on Sunday against Virginia. The Tar Heels did take care of the Cavaliers, though, 81-68, keeping them in the top-25.

While the UNC Women's Basketball program fell three spots to No. 23 this week, another top-25 matchup will await the Tar Heels this week as the No. 13 Louisville Cardinals will come to Chapel Hill on Sunday.

Across campus, away from Carmichael Arena and in the Dean E. Smith Center, the UNC Basketball program was making a statement on Saturday afternoon with a 103-67 victory over Syracuse to cap off their sixth straight victory and move to 5-0 in the ACC.

When you have the dominant win over the Orange and a road quadrant one win at NC State last week and combine it with a historic bad week for the rest of the Associated Press Top 25, specifically the top ten, the Tar Heels were destined to make a jump in this week's rankings.

Nine of the Top-11 teams lost last week, with two teams (No. 2 Houston and No. 9 Oklahoma) losing twice. The only two teams that didn't lose were previously ranked No. 4 Connecticut and your No. 7 UNC Basketball team. North Carolina is now up to No. 4 in this week's AP Poll and No. 3 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

Minus the three weeks (pre-season, week one, and week two) when North Carolina was ranked No. 1 at the beginning of the 2022-23 season, this is the highest the Tar Heels have been ranked under head coach Hubert Davis.

We have to go back to the Roy Williams Era to find the Tar Heels in the top five of the AP Poll after January 1st, with the last time being the 2018-2019 season when the Tar Heels were ranked No. 5 in Week 17 of that poll on February 25, 2019, and No. 3 the following week on March 4th.

The UNC Basketball program is putting together some of the best basketball Tar Heel fans have seen in a few years, and the media is beginning to take notice, and it shows in this week's AP Poll Ranking. A home game versus Louisville, followed by a road trip to Boston College, awaits No. 4 North Carolina this week.

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