UNC basketball drops nine spots in USA TODAY SPORTS Coaches Poll

The North Carolina Tar Heels suffered their first losing week of the 2025-26 college basketball season this past week. The trip out west resulted in two losses for the Tar Heels, first blowing a lead to Stanford and then losing to Cal on Saturday.

The losses dropped UNC to 14-4 overall, and they are now 2-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. More importantly, the losses exposed a LOT of things that are wrong with the Tar Heels. They are a poor free-throw shooting team, they can’t guard the perimeter.

Advertisement

Now, as the Tar Heels prepare for another crucial week ahead, they have fallen in the latest USA TODAY SPORTS Coaches poll on Monday.

North Carolina fell nine spots to No. 24, their second-worst ranking of the season. It’s a tough pill to swallow for the Tar Heels but the reality is, they are likely to even be ranked.

Below is the full USA TODAY SPORTS Coaches Poll.

Rank

Team

Record

PTS

1st

Prev

Chg

Hi/Lo

1

Arizona

18-0

775

31

1

–

1/13

2

Michigan

16-1

710

0

3

+1

1/7

3

UConn

18-1

693

0

4

+1

3/7

4

Purdue

17-1

665

0

5

+1

1/6

5

Duke

17-1

653

0

6

+1

3/6

6

Houston

17-1

629

0

7

+1

2/8

7

Nebraska

18-0

598

0

10

+3

7/NR

8

Gonzaga

19-1

581

0

9

+1

7/20

9

Iowa State

16-2

497

0

2

-7

2/18

10

Michigan State

16-2

489

0

12

+2

8/21

11

Illinois

15-3

447

0

13

+2

8/19

12

Texas Tech

14-4

418

0

14

+2

11/20

13

BYU

16-2

412

0

11

-2

7/13

14

Vanderbilt

16-2

352

0

8

-6

8/NR

15

Virginia

16-2

350

0

16

+1

15/NR

16

Florida

13-5

284

0

20

+4

3/NR

17

Alabama

13-5

275

0

18

+1

9/18

18

Clemson

16-3

262

0

21

+3

18/NR

19

Kansas

13-5

181

0

25

+6

17/NR

20

Arkansas

13-5

173

0

17

-3

14/23

21

Louisville

13-5

117

0

19

-2

5/21

22

Georgia

15-3

110

0

22

–

20/NR

23

Saint Louis

17-1

100

0

NR

+4

23/NR

24

North Carolina

14-4

90

0

15

-9

12/25

25

St. John’s

13-5

54

0

NR

+6

6/NR

Schools Dropped Out

No. 23 Iowa; No. 24 Utah State;

Others Receiving Votes

Iowa 52; Wisconsin 20; Miami (OH) 19; Utah State 14; Villanova 10; Tennessee 10; Saint Mary’s 9; Miami (FL) 8; Texas A&M 5; Kentucky 5; SMU 4; Seton Hall 2; UCF 1; George Mason 1;

Advertisement

This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball: Tar Heels fall to No. 24 in coaches poll

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/unc-basketball-drops-nine-spots-191814769.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-01-19 19:18:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.