North Carolina, Gonzaga remain 1-2 atop AP Top 25 men's poll

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The state of North Carolina did not have a great start. It will take time to find a flow like the one that carried them to last year's NCAA championship game as the Tar Heels open their second week atop the AP men's college basketball poll.

UNC received 44 of 63 first-place votes in the first regular-season AP Top 25.

The Tar Heels have four starting players back from last year's team. They won against UNCW and College of Charleston.

Davis said he hoped it was the first game. He talked to his team about how to deal with expectations.

Davis said that he felt a little bit of a burden of the expectations, but he didn't feel nervous. I tried to get them to understand that expectations are meaningless.

They were trying to make it look like we were back in April. It is not possible. That is not possible. This is the team.

The highest tier.

Fourteen first-place votes went to the second-ranked Georgia after wins against North Florida and Michigan State. The remaining five first-place votes went to Houston and Kentucky.

The two teams were tied for fifth. Kansas and Duke are the other two teams in the top five. The rest of the top 10 are: UCLA, Arkansas, and Creighton.

There are new eras.

Older coaches are being replaced by young ones. Right out of the poll, one had an early stumbling block.

After Jay Wright's retirement, Kyle Neptune took over as the new head coach. After beating La Salle, they lost to Temple which dropped them from 16th to unranked.

Duke beat Jacksonville and USC Upstate in their first two games under Jon Scheyer, who took over for Mike Krzyzewski in Duke's first coaching change in 30 years.

It is rising.

Illinois moved up four spots to 19 after two wins. Both Arizona and Dayton moved up three places. The preseason poll had 12 teams moving up.

It was sliding.

Tennessee fell to 22nd after losing to Colorado in its home state.

Four teams fell out of the preseason rankings, including Kansas, which fell out of the voting tie.

There's no change in status quo.

All but one of the seven teams were inside the top 10.

You are welcome.

Texas A&M and Connecticut have been added to the rankings. The Aggies joined the poll for the first time under fourth-year coach Buzz Williams, after spending most of last season in the AP Top 25. The last time Texas A&M was ranked was in February of last year.

For now, farewell.

Oregon was one of two teams to fall out of the preseason poll. A home win against Florida A&M was followed by a home loss to UC Irvine.

The conference is being watched.

Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas A&M joined the SEC in being ranked.

The Big 12 had five, with Texas, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M rounding out the group.

20 Michigan joining Illinois for the Big Ten.

The West Coast, American Athletic, Mountain West and Atlantic 10 conferences each had a ranked team.