ESPN video of the incident showed Pitino walking off the court when he suddenly turned back and started shouting toward the nearby seats. Team staff and a Smith Center security official pulled him away and led him into the tunnel. UNC team spokesman Matt Bowers said the fan was ejected after the incident.

”We’re North Carolina – we don’t have to be like everybody else,” Williams said. ”You can raise Cain, you can boo, but you don’t have to say stuff that we as coaches have to put up with. I hope that never happens again at North Carolina. I apologize to Rick. I don’t know what was said.

”Cheer like crazy for us. I know some of the junk that I have to listen to on the road is not what I enjoy.”

Pitino brought up the incident in his postgame comments without being asked.

”This was a surprise environment,” Pitino said with a smile. ”I’ve always said that this is the classiest place in college basketball – until I met a fan on the way out. It always reminded me of a class place, but they’re getting just like some of the other places now.”

Asked about the incident, Pitino said: ”He just got in my face and said something I didn’t like.

”But I take it from the students all the time,” Pitino continued. ”You expect it from students. But from an adult? And then turns his back on me like he’s a coward. And he is a coward. But North Carolina is a classy place, and one person doesn’t speak for the rest of the people.”

Asked exactly what the fan said, Pitino quipped with a grin: ”Something kind about me. It’s all right.”

The eighth-ranked Tar Heels beat the seventh-ranked Cardinals 74-63.

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The 15-1 Cardinals took advantage of losses by Duke and Michigan to move up two spots to No. 1 on Monday in The Associated Press’ Top 25 poll. This is just the second time in school history they’re on top. The other time was the final poll of 2008-09, a season in which they reached the final eight of the NCAA tournament.

Hours later, Louisville used a strong second half to beat Connecticut 73-60 on Monday night to move to 16-1.

Louisville was one of five teams to receive a first-place vote this week, and that backs Pitino’s point.

“I think the top teams will play musical chairs for No. 1 for the next two months and it will be really significant at the end of the year,” Pitino said before the Monday’s game. “We played a tough nonconference schedule and I’m really happy the way our guys have battled through injuries. We’ll try to hold the musical top as long as we can.”

The Cardinals, who have won 11 straight since losing to Duke in the final of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, received 36 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel. That’s 23 more than Indiana, which moved up from fifth.

Indiana was No. 1 in the preseason poll and for the first five weeks of the regular season. Duke, which was No. 1 for the past four weeks, was third with 14 No. 1 votes. The Blue Devils were followed by Kansas and Michigan, which drew one first-place vote each.

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Four teams entered the week unbeaten — Duke, Michigan, Arizona and Wyoming — and each suffered its first loss.

It was the first time three of the top four teams lost in the same week since November 2003, when the top four teams — Connecticut, Duke, Michigan State and Arizona — all were defeated.

Syracuse, Arizona, Gonzaga, Minnesota and Florida rounded out this week’s top 10.

There were four newcomers to the poll this week: No. 21 Oregon, No. 22 Virginia Commonwealth, No. 24 UCLA and No. 25 Marquette.

It is VCU’s first ranking since the 1984-85 season. Oregon is back in for the first time since 2007-08. Marquette was ranked last season, and UCLA, which was No. 13 in the preseason poll, is back after being out for the past seven weeks.

They replaced Georgetown, Cincinnati, Wichita State and UNLV, who all lost once last week.

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