University of North Carolina Athletics
Men's Basketball Moves to No. 1 in AP Poll
February 5, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2001
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
North Carolina and a new coach appears to be a formula that results in a No. 1 ranking.
The Tar Heels, just four days after beating archrival Duke on the road, moved into the top spot in The Associated Press college basketball rankings Monday.
This is the 80th time North Carolina (19-2) has been ranked No. 1 and it's the first time since the final poll of the 1997-98 season. Just like this season, when first-year coach Matt Doherty has them on top, that season was the first as head man for Bill Guthridge, who succeeded Dean Smith.
The Tar Heels, who extended their winning streak to 16 games with a victory over Georgia Tech on Saturday, received 60 first-place votes and 1,787 points from the nationwide media panel in making the move from No. 4.
``That is not one of my goals -- not to be No. 1 during the season. My goal is to be No.1 at the end of the season,'' Doherty said. ``We all want that. I want us to be the best team in the country, but it just makes our job tougher. That's someone's opinion. I want to prove it on the floor.''
Stanford (20-1), the last unbeaten Division I team, dropped from first to second after losing 79-73 to UCLA. The Cardinal, who held the No. 1 spot for four weeks, got nine first-place votes and 1,677 points, 22 more than Duke (20-2), which dropped one spot following the home loss to North Carolina.
Michigan State (18-2), which beat Michigan and Purdue last week, got the other three first-place votes and moved up one place to fourth.
Kansas, which lost at Missouri last week, dropped two spots to fifth. Virginia, which beat Maryland and Wake Forest, jumped from 11th to sixth and was followed in the Top Ten by Illinois, Florida, Syracuse and Tennessee.
Arizona, which lost to Oregon then beat Oregon State, dropped four places and leads the Second Ten. Arizona was followed by Iowa State, Maryland, Iowa, Georgetown, Wisconsin, Boston College, Alabama, Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
The last five ranked teams were Oklahoma, Southern California, Fresno State, Xavier and Mississippi.
North Carolina became the fifth team to hold the No. 1 spot this season, joining preseason pick Arizona, Duke, Michigan State and Stanford. It's the most teams to be ranked No. 1 since 1994-95, when six teams did it: Arkansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Connecticut, Kansas and UCLA.
The 80 polls at No. 1 puts the Tar Heels third on the all-time list behind UCLA (128) and Kentucky (87). Duke is next on the list at 75 polls.
North Carolina started the season 3-0, then lost consecutive games to Michigan State and Kentucky. The latter, on Dec. 2, was the last game before the current winning streak began.
``It feels good, but it's something you can't focus on too much, because you get too overwhelmed with being No. 1 and somebody will knock you off,'' said senior center Brendan Haywood, who won the Duke game with two free throws with 1.2 seconds to play.
Xavier (17-3) is ranked for the first time since early in the 1998-99 season, when it got as high as No. 13. The Musketeers have won six straight since a loss to Massachusetts snapped a previous six-game winning streak.
Mississippi (17-4) fell out of the poll last week after having lost three of four, but the Rebels were back following wins over Arkansas and Auburn.
Seton Hall (12-8), which saw its slide stretch to three games with Sunday's loss to Rutgers, dropped out from 22nd. The Pirates, who have lost six of eight, were ranked No. 10 in the preseason poll and got as high as seventh this season.
Georgia (13-9), which moved into the Top 25 last week for its first appearance in more than three years, was out after one week. The Bulldogs, who were ranked 25th, lost to Kentucky and Florida last week.
