Nevada Las Vegas Is Ranked No. 1; UCLA No. 11 : North Carolina, After Its Loss to Bruins, Is Dropped From Top Spot to No. 5

Nevada Las Vegas took over the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press college basketball poll Monday as previously top-ranked North Carolina fell to fifth.

The Runnin’ Rebels (5-0) moved up from last week’s No. 2 ranking with 39 first-place votes and 1,236 points from the nationwide panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. UNLV’s only game last week was an 80-77 victory at Memphis State.

Indiana was second with 14 first-place votes and 1,144 points, followed by Purdue, with seven first-place votes and 1,126 points, and Iowa, which had 1,029 points.

Indiana (3-0) beat Notre Dame and then-No. 13 Kentucky last week. Purdue (3-0) registered victories over Illinois State and Connecticut. Iowa beat Missouri St. Louis before winning the Hawkeye tournament.

North Carolina (4-1), which had one first-place vote and 1,012 points, lost at UCLA, 89-84, before posting home victories over Stetson, 100-64, and Miami, Fla., 122-77.

Illinois, the fourth Big Ten team in the top six, jumped from last week’s No. 9 ranking with a 99-97 road victory over then-No. 12 Pittsburgh. The Fighting Illini (4-0) had one first-place vote and 857 points.

Rounding out the top 10 are Auburn, which also received one first-place vote and 779 points; Western Kentucky, 663 points; Oklahoma, 627 points; and Navy, 547 points.

Western Kentucky (6-1) and Oklahoma (3-1) improved from 14th and 11th, respectively. The only loss for both schools was to Nevada Las Vegas in the preseason National Invitation Tournament.

Leading off the second 10 is UCLA (3-0), which received one first-place vote and 517 points.

After UCLA are Syracuse, Georgetown, Kansas, North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Alabama, Kentucky and Arkansas.

Syracuse jumped from last week’s No. 17 ranking after winning its own Carrier tournament with a 94-74 victory over then-No. 19 Northeastern in the championship game.

Arkansas joined UCLA as the new entries in the poll. The Razorbacks (4-0) beat then-No. 6 Kansas, 103-86, and have won all of their games by at least 14 points.

Alabama dropped from eighth to 18th after losing to Florida State, 72-71, and Kentucky fell from 13th to 19th after losing to Indiana.