No. 2 North Carolina 84, Florida State 58

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) _ Roy Williams has won a national championship at North Carolina. Now might be his chance to find out what it's like to lead his alma mater to the No. 1 ranking. <br/><br/>The

Monday, January 8th 2007, 6:26 am

By: News On 6

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) _ Roy Williams has won a national championship at North Carolina. Now might be his chance to find out what it's like to lead his alma mater to the No. 1 ranking.

The second-ranked Tar Heels moved into position to reach the top of The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in six seasons by routing Florida State 84-58 Sunday night.

``It says that to this point in the year, we're doing all right,'' Williams said. ``I've been No. 1 before, and if you don't finish that way at the end of the year, it means you had a good little stretch, but it doesn't mean what people remember.''

Tyler Hansbrough scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half and freshman Brandan Wright _ the other half of the Tar Heels' one-two low-post punch _ added 20.

Wright then welcomed the challenge of possibly taking over the top spot from UCLA, which was upset over the weekend by Oregon.

``It's an honor, but that means we've got to step it up, play harder, because teams are going to be gunning for us,'' Wright said.

In other games involving ranked teams Sunday, it was: No. 9 Kansas 70, South Carolina 54; No. 10 Pittsburgh 69, South Florida 48; Syracuse 70, No. 15 Marquette 58; and No. 19 Tennessee 92, Mississippi State 84.

Williams reached No. 1 when he coached at Kansas, but has yet to take North Carolina to the top spot _ not even during his national championship season of 2004-05 when they finished the regular season No. 2 to Illinois.

The Tar Heels' last appearance atop the poll came under Matt Doherty in February 2001, when they were No. 1 for two weeks before losing at Clemson.

Hansbrough helped the Tar Heels (14-1, 1-0) avoid a costly Atlantic Coast Conference slip-up by keying both of North Carolina's significant spurts, scoring five points during a 20-7 run late in the first half and then adding eight during a 15-6 run that started the second half and pushed the lead into double figures to stay.

``In the second half, things were going well, I got in a groove and just kept going at them aggressively,'' Hansbrough said. ``It was a combination of my teammates giving me the ball and giving me good looks.''

The Tar Heels overcame Al Thornton's 29 points and 12 rebounds by shooting 47 percent and outrebounding the smaller Seminoles, 47-35.

``This team is going to be a handful. The thing about Carolina is that they still probably, as young as they are, they've got an awful lot of room to improve,'' Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. ``This may be the year we're glad we're not playing them but one time.''

North Carolina, which won its fifth straight in the series, remained perfect at home and has won nine of its 10 games at the Dean Smith Center by at least 12 points.

``We know what to do _ get the ball inside,'' Wright said.

Jason Rich added 10 points for Florida State (12-4, 0-2), which has followed an eight-game winning streak with consecutive conference losses.

Florida State fell to 1-4 against ranked teams with its lone victory coming against defending national champion Florida on Dec. 3.

No. 9 Kansas 70, South Carolina 54

At Columbia, S.C., Mario Chalmers scored 19 points, and Darrell Arthur added 17 to help Kansas (13-2) win its seventh straight and end South Carolina's six-game winning streak.

Dwayne Day led South Carolina (10-3) with 13 points.

No. 10 Pittsburgh 69, South Florida 48

At Pittsburgh, Levance Fields scored 11 points, and Pittsburgh (14-2, 2-0 Big East) overcame another low-scoring game from Aaron Gray.

The 7-foot Gray, the Big East preseason player of the year, had seven points for his fourth straight game in single figures. Kentrell Gransberry had 14 points for South Florida (9-7, 0-2).

Syracuse 70, No. 15 Marquette 58

At Milwaukee, Eric Devendorf scored a season-high 20 points to lead Syracuse (12-4, 1-1 Big East) to its first victory in four games against ranked teams this season.

Jerel McNeal had 16 points for Marquette (13-4, 0-2).

No. 19 Tennessee 92, Mississippi State 84

At Knoxville, Tenn., Chris Lofton scored 21 points, and Duke Crews added 18 to lead Tennessee (13-2, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) to its ninth straight victory.

Jamont Gordon had a career-high 25 points, and added 11 rebounds and nine assists for the Bulldogs (9-5, 0-1), winless on the road in the SEC since the end of the 2004-05 season.