Associated Press
The college basketball notebook …North Carolina’s 35-point romp over a ranked team kept the Tar Heels a unanimous No. 1 choice in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll Monday. Ohio State joined the Top 25 following a pair of five-point victories over ranked teams.
The Tar Heels (8-0) dismantled Michigan State 98-63 at Ford Field last week as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and again received all 72 first-place votes from the national media panel.
Connecticut and Pittsburgh held the second and third spots, while Gonzaga and Oklahoma both moved up one place to fourth and fifth. Texas, Duke, Tennessee, Louisville and Xavier rounded out the top 10.
Ohio State (5-0), which beat Miami and Notre Dame last week, moved in at No. 21, the Buckeyes’ first ranking since being No. 1 in the final poll of 2006-07.
Defending national champion Kansas (7-1) moved back into the poll at No. 25.
Texas (6-1) moved up one spot after beating UCLA 68-64 last week. Duke, which lost 81-73 at Michigan on Saturday after winning 76-60 at Purdue on Tuesday, fell from fourth to seventh.
Wake Forest was 11th and was followed by Notre Dame, Syracuse, Purdue, Villanova, UCLA, Memphis, Michigan State, Georgetown and Arizona State.
The last five ranked teams were Ohio State, Baylor, Davidson, Marquette and Kansas.
TOP 25
LOUISVILLE, Ky. ó Freshman Samardo Samuels scored 15 points and Earl Clark added six points, six rebounds and five assists to lead No. 9 Louisville to a 78-56 victory over Lamar on Monday night in the final game of the Marques Maybin Classic.
The Cardinals (5-1) won their third game in as many days. They won their previous two games in the round-robin tournament by a combined 75 points.
No. 19 Georgetown 100, Savannah St. 38
WASHINGTON ó DaJuan Summers, Jessie Sapp and Austin Freeman all had 14 points and Greg Monroe added 13 for Georgetown (6-1).
NOTE
GREENSBORO ó The ACC named Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez and Georgia Tech’s Iman Shumpert as its players of the week.
The ACC said Monday that Vasquez is its player of the week while Shumpert is its top rookie.
Vasquez averaged 20 points, 111/2 rebounds and 5 1/2 assists in victories over Michigan and George Washington.