Tar Heels top men's pre-season hoops poll

UNDATED - North Carolina is back in its familiar pre-season spot atop the AP basketball poll.

For the sixth time since The Associated Press started a pre-season college basketball poll in 1961, the Tar Heels are ranked number one. North Carolina has three starters and eight contributors returning from a team that lost to Georgetown in a regional final.

North Carolina received 29 first-place votes from the 72-member national media panel. UCLA, which has four starters back from its Final Four team, was named first on 24 ballots.

Memphis, which has all five starters back from its regional final team, got 18 first-place votes.

Kansas is fourth and Georgetown, which picked up the only other first-place vote, is fifth, followed by Louisville, Tennessee, Michigan State, Indiana and Washington State.

Marquette checks in at number-11 and is followed by Oregon, Duke, Gonzaga, Texas, Texas A Arizona, Southern California, Arkansas and Kentucky.

The last five ranked teams are North Carolina State, Pittsburgh, Stanford, Southern Illinois and Kansas State.

The two teams that played for last season's national championship were hit hard out by defections to the NBA and neither titleholder Florida nor Ohio State are included in the preseason Top 25.