Tar Heel basketball needs to begin the new season low profile.

Forty years ago, as the 1977 Carolina team returned from Atlanta and a heart-breaking loss to Marquette in the national championship game, I was a little surprised that several players talked about going back to the Final Four the next year.

Surprised because that team was losing seniors Walter Davis, John Kuester and Tom LaGarde and miraculously made it to the Final Four despite injuries that hurt their inside game the last month of the season. Sure, Phil Ford was coming back for his senior year and Mike O’Koren as a sophomore, but I did not think the 1978 team had enough inside firepower to return.

When I hear all the talk about the current Tar Heels reaching a third straight Final Four, that 40-year-ago scenario pops into my head. Yes, the current Tar Heels will have one of the best perimeters in the country, especially when Joel Berry recovers from the right hand he broke by pounding a door after losing a video game to Theo Pinson.

But the critical piece of every UNC title team – from Lennie Rosenbluth to James Worthy to Eric Montross to Sean May to Tyler Hansbrough to Bradley-Meeks-Hicks last season – has been a formidable inside presence. Unless one or two of four unproven post men provide that by the 2018 NCAA tournament, Carolina is unlikely to make it back for a chance to repeat.

Roy Williams joked at his preseason press conference when asked about freshmen Garrison Brooks, Brandon Huffman, Sterling Manley and Walker Miller, “If you take the best part of each one and put them all together, you still don’t have a player.” That’s how far the Tar Heels’ inside game has to go, especially for a program that has led the nation in rebounding.

The players can’t be blamed when the media asks them about it. What do we expect them to say? “Well, we’ll try but our big men aren’t very good right now?” Of course, they think they can overcome that. Few thought Brice Johnson could be replaced last season, and he was by a committee of three.

In 1977, when center LaGarde was lost with an injury in February, Dean Smith rotated freshmen Rich Yonakor, Jeff Wolf and Steve Krafcisin, and dubbed the trio Yon-Wolf-sin. Perhaps Roy can do the same and get the same from Broo-Huff-Man-ler.”

(Photo Credit: Todd Melet)

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