Tar Heels are preseason No. 1; Cyclones enter season at No. 7

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina sits alone at the top, both of the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll and on the all-time list of teams with the most preseason No. 1 rankings.

The Tar Heels are determined to be there in April, too.

With nine of its top 10 scorers back, UNC enters the 2015-16 season at No. 1 for a record ninth time in AP preseason poll history, breaking a tie with UCLA.

“I do feel like we’re going to be a good basketball team,” coach Roy Williams said in a statement Monday. “I’m excited for our kids, because this is one of the best groups that I’ve ever worked with.

“We made a nice run last year but were disappointed with the way it ended. Hopefully we will use that as fuel to be the best team we can be this year.”

The Tar Heels earned 35 of 65 first-place votes to claim the top spot in Monday’s poll, keeping them ahead of No. 2 Kentucky (10 first-place votes), No. 3 Maryland (14), No. 4 Kansas (5) and reigning champion Duke at No. 5. Sixth-ranked Virginia received the other first-place vote.

Iowa State, the two-time defending Big 12 tournament champion, is seventh. The Cyclones open a new era under Steve Prohm at home Friday in an exhibition game against Grand Valley State. They open the season against Colorado Nov. 13 at Sioux Falls, S.D.

Oklahoma, Gonzaga and Wichita State round out the top 10.

Iowa was among those teams receiving votes. The Hawkeyes begin their sixth season under head coach Fran McCaffery. They play their second exhibition game Friday against Augustana (S.D.) at Iowa City. Iowa opens the regular season at home Nov. 13 against Gardner-Webb.

North Carolina was last ranked preseason No. 1 in the AP poll in 2011-12 and reached the Elite Eight that season. The Tar Heels have twice turned a preseason No. 1 ranking into a national championship, first in 1982 and again in 2009.

This year’s Tar Heels return four double-digit scorers, including preseason ACC co-player of the year Marcus Paige and returning all-ACC forward Brice Johnson.

They enter this season under the shadow of an ongoing NCAA investigation into the school’s long-running academic fraud scandal focused on courses with significant athlete enrollments.

Neither Williams nor his program are specifically cited for a violation among five NCAA charges, and it’s unclear whether the program or school will face penalties in a case likely to linger into the spring.