North Carolina broke a tie with its fiercest rival and moved into one with one of college basketball’s most storied programs.

The Tar Heels, who return all five starters from the team that reached the regional finals last season, were the runaway No. 1 in the Associated Press men’s preseason Top 25 on Friday. It is the eighth time they have received that honor since the preseason poll started in 1961-62.

That breaks a tie with Duke, North Carolina’s Tobacco Road rival, and moves them into a tie with UCLA, the program that dominated the sport unlike any other under coach John Wooden.

“It shows that North Carolina basketball has had a tremendous level of success over a long, long period of time,” coach Roy Williams said. “We are very proud of that and this is another indication of the program’s great history.”

North Carolina received all but three of the No. 1 votes cast by the 65-member national media poll, finishing well ahead of Kentucky, the team that eliminated the Tar Heels last season one step from the Final Four.

With the frontcourt of Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller all passing up the chance to enter the NBA Draft and point guard Kendall Marshall having a chance to run the team for the whole season instead of just the final 20 games, the Tar Heels have the personnel to start the season comfortably atop the poll.

“I’m happy that people feel this positive about our team, but the great thing about college basketball is you have to get it done on the court,” Williams said. “This gives us a goal and it’s up to us to work hard and be the best team we can be to reach that goal.”

North Carolina has been the preseason No. 1 in three of the past five seasons. In 2008-09, the Tar Heels were a unanimous preseason No. 1 with five starters back, and that season ended with a national championship.

The Tar Heels’ other preseason No. 1s were in 2007-08 (Final Four), 1993-94 (second round), 1986-87 (regional final), 1983-84 (regional semifinals), 1981-82 (national championship) and 1977-78 (first round).

“We have the opportunity to win it all, and we have the opportunity to completely fail,” Barnes has said. “It’s just a matter of we continue to stay humble and continue to take the right steps and get our way back on top like we did last year.”

Ohio State, which got one first-place vote, was third and defending national champion Connecticut, which received the other two No. 1 votes, was fourth.

Kentucky has starters Terrence Jones and Darius Miller back to lead yet another outstanding recruiting class by coach John Calipari. Ohio State has All-America Jared Sullinger and senior guard William Buford back, while Connecticut has to find a way to replace All-America Kemba Walker, the all-everything guard who carried the Huskies through their 11-game winning streak to the national championship. Don’t feel too bad for Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun as freshman Andre Drummond will give the Huskies a presence under the basket.

Syracuse, Duke, Vanderbilt, Florida, Louisville and Pittsburgh rounded out the top 10.

Memphis was 11th followed by Baylor, Kansas, Xavier, Wisconsin, Arizona, UCLA, Michigan, Alabama and Texas A&M. The final five teams were Cincinnati, Marquette, Gonzaga, California and Missouri.

Fourteen of the teams in the preseason poll were ranked in last season’s final poll. Ohio State was No. 1 entering the NCAA tournament and the Buckeyes lost to Kentucky in the regional semifinals.

Duke was No. 1 in the 2010-11 preseason poll and went on to finish third in the final poll before losing to Arizona in the regional semifinals. Connecticut wasn’t ranked before last season but worked its way to No. 9 in the final poll.

Vanderbilt had the longest stretch of not being in the preseason Top 25. The Commodores were last in the rankings in 1993-94. Xavier was next with its last preseason appearance in 2002-03, while Cincinnati was last in 2003-04.

Vanderbilt has all the starters back from a team that came on strong at the end of the regular season only to be knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the first round by Richmond.

“There has been some fixation on our early exits from the tournament, but we have been very excited about this team for a very long time. For good reason, we have good players,” coach Kevin Stallings said. “If this team can stay healthy, I think we have a chance to have the best team we have ever had.”

The Big East has six ranked teams, two more than the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 had three each. Even with all the offcourt doings in the Big East — Syracuse and Pittsburgh leaving, TCU never really showing up and some others ready to head elsewhere — the conference that set the record for teams in an NCAA tournament last season is going to be tough again.

“In the past five years we’ve had the best basketball league in the country,” Calhoun said. “We had 11 teams in the NCAA tournament last year and on paper today nine of them would be in it again.”

Duke has the longest current streak of being ranked at 78 polls, a run that started with the preseason poll in 2007-08. Kansas is next with 46, a streak that began on Feb. 2, 2009.

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Perhaps aware of the dangers of messing with what works, Keegan Bradley re-signed with Cleveland Golf. The PGA Championship winner signed a multi-year extension with the club maker, announced Thursday.

Bradley will continue to use Cleveland Golf woods, irons and wedges, as well as a Srixon ball. The St. John’s product has been using the same equipment since college.

“We are extremely pleased that Keegan has chosen to remain a member of our PGA Tour staff,” said Greg Hopkins, CEO of Cleveland Golf.”His passion for the game of golf and his competitive drive make him the type of brand ambassador that any company would be honored to have on their team.”

In his rookie season on the PGA Tour, Bradley has won twice, adding the HP Byron Nelson Championship to the Wanamaker Trophy he won at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Updated Oct 3, 2011 12:37 AM ET

DOVER, Del.

Kurt Busch stormed into contention for a second Cup championship, holding off fellow Chase drivers Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards to win Sunday at Dover International Speedway.

Edwards and Kevin Harvick share the points lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship standings after three rounds. Harvick is seeded first because of a tiebreaker.

Round 4 of the Chase is at Kansas Speedway.

Busch pulled away from Johnson after a late restart to win his second race of the season. Johnson, the five-time defending champion, was second and Edwards was third. Busch moved from ninth to fourth in the standings, only nine points out of first.

”To win a Sprint Cup race in the Chase, this is what it’s all about,” Busch said.

Chase drivers Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch were fifth and sixth. Harvick was 10th.

Tony Stewart lost the points lead he built after winning the first two Chase races and finished 25th.

Only 15 points separate the top eight drivers. The 400-mile race only tightened the leaderboard and no driver has emerged as clear-cut favorite.

Johnson’s reign was considered by some to be on the ropes after finishing 10th and 18th in the first two Chase races. But his strong finish on a track where he usually dominates moved him only 13 points behind the leaders with seven races remaining.

”Are we out of this?” said Johnson, rubbing his chin with a smile.

Not yet. Not by a long shot.

Non-Chase drivers filled four of the top-10 spots. Kasey Kahne was fourth, AJ Allmendinger was seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth, and Marcos Ambrose ninth.

Busch made his move off the final restart with 43 laps, leaving Johnson behind. Johnson led a race-high 157 laps.

”Giving up a win by not getting a good restart, I’ll think about it tonight,” Johnson said. ”But big-picture wise, we’ll take it.”

The winning move against Johnson made the victory more meaningful for Busch. Two of the sport’s top drivers have developed a long-simmering rivalry over the years. It reached a boiling part at Richmond when Busch called Johnson a ”five-time chump.”

”To beat your arch nemesis, that’s just icing on the cake. That’s pretty sweet,” Busch said.

Edwards, who won the Dover Nationwide race on Saturday, dominated most of the race until a pit road speeding penalty cost him a lap. Without that infraction, Edwards just might have won the race and made it a weekend sweep.

”I definitely took myself out of position to fight for the win by doing that,’ Edwards said. ”It’s something that’s painful.”

Busch opened the Chase with a solid sixth at Chicagoland Speedway, but struggled at New Hampshire and finished 22nd. He No. 22 Dodge started second at Dover and he carried that over into Victory Lane – and up the standings.

Busch, the 2004 champion, won his 24th career race and for the first time at Dover.

”We’ve got such a long way to go in this Chase,” Busch said. ”That’s what we’re really focused on.”

Updated Sep 30, 2011 6:39 AM ET

TOKYO (AP)

Vera Zvonareva staged a remarkable turnaround to beat Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 7-6 (2), 6-0 on Friday and advance to the final at the Pan Pacific Open.

The fourth-seeded Russian took advantage of a collapse by Kvitova, who held a comfortable 5-1 lead in the first set before Zvonareva stormed back to make it 5-5, breaking her opponent three times. Both players then held serve to force the tiebreaker.

The second set was all Zvonareva, who broke the fifth-seeded Czech three times to close out the match in 1 hour, 30 minutes.

”If I knew what happened I would tell you,” Kvitova said. ”I don’t know what happened. At 5-1, I just didn’t play my game and she came back and played much better than me. The first set was mine for sure.”

Zvonareva will face Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in Saturday’s final. The ninth-seeded Radwanska beat No. 3 seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in a match that lasted 2 hours, 31 minutes.

Zvonareva had won both her previous matches against Kvitova on hard courts and continued her dominance in Friday’s match at Ariake Colosseum.

”I played very good tennis, very consistent,” Zvonareva said. ”Petra is a tough opponent. We always have tough matches but I was a little more consistent today.”

Kvitova has beaten Zvonareva twice on clay and said the surface was a factor.

”On clay, she can’t move as well as she does on the hard court so I have more space and time for winners,” Kvitova said. ”She plays very well on hard court and is tough to beat.”

Zvonareva and Radwanska are 2-2 in head-to-head matches.

”I’ve beaten Vera a couple of times, she’s a great player and I know I have to play my best to beat her,” Radwanska said. ”I just hope I can play like I can today.”