The UNC basketball program has had one of the best offseasons in college basketball and that comes on the heels of a national runner-up appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
In [autotag]Hubert Davis[/autotag]’ second offseason, a lot of time was spent around his current roster and that work made an impact as the Tar Heels return every key piece to its roster from a season ago that was eligible to return. Outside of Brady Manek, who had exhausted his eligibility, UNC returns its other four starters in [autotag]Armando Bacot[/autotag], [autotag]Caleb Love[/autotag], [autotag]Leaky Black[/autotag] and [autotag]RJ Davis[/autotag].
While they did lose a few pieces from the roster, none were in the rotation following January — when the Tar Heels went on their big second half of the season run.
After sitting atop almost every single ‘way-too-early’ poll for next season, they did slip in the updated 247Sports rankings following the NBA Draft withdrawal date.
A new team took over the top spot and that is Gonzaga. The Bulldogs returned all three starters they were waiting to hear from, including All-American forward Drew Timme.
So, as of now the Tar Heels sit as the No. 2 overall team.
“On Feb. 16, the Tar Heels took a brutal home loss to Pittsburgh. And from Feb. 17 on, North Carolina was among the nation’s best teams, according to statistics website BartTorvik, going 11-2 with the only two losses coming in the ACC Tournament to Virginia Tech and the national title game to Kansas,” 247Sports writer Kevin Flaherty said. “Four starters are back, including the bread-and-butter backcourt duo of Caleb Love and R.J. Davis, and likely preseason ACC Player of the Year Armando Bacot at center. Leaky Black’s defensive versatility was key in that run, and if Puff Johnson can play like he did in the national title game he should fill in at the four nicely. Three top-75 recruits help add depth to a team that wasn’t particularly deep last year, and a step forward from sophomore-to-be Dontrez Styles would help immensely, too.”
UNC finished last season 29-10 overall and 15-5 in the ACC. The Tar Heels went on to defeat Duke in the Final Four, which was the first ever NCAA Tournament matchup for the two programs.
Despite there being nearly six months before the 2022-23 college basketball season begins, UNC basketball will sit near the top of the rankings of nearly every single preseason poll.
North Carolina still has one available scholarship as well and it’s unclear if it will be used through the transfer portal at this point.
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