NCAA Basketball: Purdue, Duke, fall in latest top 25 power ranking
By Joey Loose
10. North Carolina (7-1)
After a Final Four in his first year as a head coach, Hubert Davis was certainly disappointed with how things proceeded for these Tar Heels last season. Things are different now in year three and the Tar Heels have played mostly solid basketball throughout the first month of the season. They came up just short in Atlantic, settling for a 3rd place finish, but the resume grew a bit more this past week.
Tennessee came to town this week as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge and found themselves in an early hole as the Tar Heels prevailed 100-92. Among the stars of the game were RJ Davis (27 points), Armando Bacot (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Harrison Ingram (20 points, 6 rebounds). North Carolina did not have another hot start this weekend, falling behind by double-digits early to Florida State before charging back for a 78-70 win. The Tar Heels secured their first ACC win and got another 27-point effort from Davis.
It’s not been the smoothest road in the world, but the Tar Heels have yet to lose in regulation and have a couple of impressive wins under their belt in the last two weeks alone. The offense looks as elite as a few years ago, albeit still inconsistent at times. They’ll need everything at their disposal with few easy games remaining, including a rough matchup against UConn this upcoming Tuesday.