Tar Heels Stay on Top

North Carolina, which finished a four-game trip with two wins last week, remained the No. 1 team in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll Monday, and Hawaii made its first appearance in the rankings in 24 years.

The Tar Heels (15-0), who beat Bethune-Cookman and Clemson last week after beating Florida State and Georgia the week before, were on top of the poll for the fourth week in a row after receiving 68 first-place votes and 1,748 points from a national media panel.

Duke, which won at Maryland by 32 points Saturday, moved up one spot to No. 2. The Blue Devils (12-1) had the other two first-place votes and 1,675 points.

Utah (12-0) moved up from fourth to third, and Kansas (17-2), which lost to Hawaii 76-65 in the championship game of the Rainbow Classic, dropped from second to fourth. Arizona, which opened its Pacific 10 season with a victory over UCLA, moved from eighth to No. 5 and was followed by Kentucky, Stanford, Connecticut, Purdue and UCLA.

Hawaii (11-1) was 21st.

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Jermaine Tate, a starter for Ohio State before being sidelined because of a heart ailment, plans to resume his career at Cincinnati and will have two years of eligibility, beginning in December.

Bearcat Coach Bob Huggins said the ailment, diagnosed as cardiomyopathy, is not expected to prevent Tate from playing.

Tate, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound junior, started 41 of his 43 games at Ohio State and was averaging 14.1 points and 6.4 rebounds for the Buckeyes a year ago when the heart problem was detected.