North Carolina Still No. 1

Monday, Nov. 12, 2007 | 9:52 a.m.

The Atlantic Sun Conference doesn't have any members in the Top 25, but its teams knocked a couple of big-name schools out of the rankings.

Gardner-Webb's win over Kentucky and Mercer's victory over Southern California weren't enough to get them into The Associated Press' first regular-season poll Monday, although both did receive votes.

Southern California fell from the rankings after it was 18th in the preseason. Kentucky dropped out from 20th place.

North Carolina, which opens the season against Davidson on Wednesday, remained No. 1 as the top seven teams held their places from the preseason poll.

Villanova, which beat Stony Brook 86-64 in its season opener, and Butler, which beat Ball State 61-45 in its first game, moved into the rankings at Nos. 24 and 25.

North Carolina received 29 first-place votes and 1,737 points from the 72-member national media panel. UCLA, which opened with a 69-48 victory over Portland State, was No. 1 on 24 ballots and had 1,710 points.

Memphis, which beat Tennessee-Martin and Richmond to advance to this week's semifinals of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic, was third with 18 first-place votes. Kansas, which beat Louisiana-Monroe and Missouri-Kansas City by an average of 26 points, was fourth.

Georgetown drew the other first-place votes and was fifth, followed by Louisville and Tennessee. Indiana, Washington State, Marquette and Oregon all moved up one spot to eighth through 11th, respectively.

Michigan State, which opens the season Tuesday against Chicago State, dropped four places to 12th after losing to Division II Grand Valley State in an exhibition game.

Duke, Gonzaga, Texas A&M, Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, Pittsburgh and Stanford rounded out the top 20.

The last five ranked teams were North Carolina State, Kansas State, Southern Illinois, Villanova and Butler.

Gardner-Webb beat Kentucky 84-68 in the second round of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic. The Bulldogs, with seven points in the poll voting, will play Connecticut in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, while Memphis faces Oklahoma.

Mercer, which opened its season with the 96-81 victory at Southern California, had four points.

The second full week of the season won't feature any matchups between ranked teams, but two of the more interesting games have Michigan at Georgetown on Thursday and Virginia at Arizona on Saturday.