Forte, Haywood Named Finalists for Naismith

ATLANTA -- North Carolina's Joseph Forte and Brendan Haywood are among the finalists for the 2001 Naismith college basketball player of the year awards.

The finalists, announced Monday by the Atlanta Tipoff Club, were selected by a national advisory board of coaches, journalists and administrators. The winners will be announced in Atlanta April 7.

The other finalists for the men's award include Charlie Bell and Jason Richardson of Michigan State, Jarron Collins and Casey Jacobson of Stanford, Troy Murphy of Notre Dame and Shane Battier and Jason Williams of Duke.

The finalists for the women's award include Svetlana Abrosimova, Sue Bird and Shea Ralph, all of Connecticut, twins Coco and Kelly Miller of Georgia and Tamika Catchings and Michelle Snow of Tennessee.

UNC Still No. 1

While North Carolina remained

No. 1 in The Associated Press poll for the second straight week Monday, two of college basketball's other premier programs re-entered the Top 25.

Kentucky and UCLA, both dropped from the rankings 11 weeks ago, came in this week at Nos. 22 and 24.

North Carolina (21-2), which extended the nation's longest winning streak to 18 games with victories against Wake Forest and Maryland last week, received 62 first-place votes and 1,742 points from the national media panel.

Stanford (22-1), which got the other eight No. 1 votes and 1,659 points, and Duke (22-2) remained second and third.

Illinois, which beat Michigan State last week in the only regular-season meeting between the Big Ten's top two teams, jumped from seventh to fourth, while the Spartans dropped one spot to fifth.

Kansas dropped one spot to sixth after losing to Iowa State last week, a victory that jumped the Cyclones from 12th to seventh.

Florida dropped three spots to No. 11 and was followed in the second 10 by Virginia, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Mississippi, Maryland, Georgetown, Wisconsin and Fresno State.

The last five ranked teams were Alabama, Kentucky, Wake Forest, UCLA and Iowa.

Kentucky (15-7) dropped from the rankings in late November after a loss to Penn State left the Wildcats 1-3. Consecutive losses to Georgia Tech and Michigan State gave Kentucky a 3-5 mark, but since then it has won 12 of 14 games, including the last five in a row. The Wildcats' 8-2 Southeastern Conference record gives them a two-game lead against Florida in the league's East Division.