As the new season starts, let’s follow the team and not the narrative.
The Tar Heels were last ranked No. 1 before the first game back in 2015, seven years ago. That team did advance to the Final Four behind Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson before losing the heartbreaker on a buzzer-beater by Villanova in the NCAA championship game.
The last UNC team to be ranked No. 1 and go on to win it all was the 2008-09 Tar Heels led by Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson. Their immediate predecessors also opened at No. 1 and reached the Final Four before losing to Kansas in the 2008 national semifinals.
This fall, it is a whole different narrative. A second-year coach coming off his rookie season where they were on the NCAA bubble before a late push sent them all the way to Monday night in New Orleans. And, on paper, a better team is expected to open tonight against UNC-Wilmington at the Smith Center.
Because four starters are back and a talented grad transfer lead a deeper roster, their second-half loss to Kansas last April has catapulted them into the favorite’s role and a far different feel from a year ago, when Hubert Davis was putting together his first team from some old parts, broken parts and new parts.
All that is positive, of course, but there is one major difference. The Cinderella team of 2022 will face the pressure of its ranking from the first game of the new season. How much have the returnees improved, and will the old Iron Five mesh with a roster that may go 10 deep?
That adjustment and a schedule that could include four ranked teams over the holidays might mean a rocky start for these Tar Heels. And, if so, the narrative would change in a hurry.
Davis says he will play whoever earns time in practice, so whether it’s senior Justin McKoy, junior Puff Johnson, sophomores Dontrez Styles and D’Marco Dunn or freshmen Seth Trimble and Tyler Nickel coming off the bench to join veterans Bacot, Black, Love, R.J. Davis and presumably Pete Nance, a new chemistry is being formed.
Should the Tar Heels begin the next calendar year with several losses, they will surely be called overrated by some pundits and fans. The ultimate goal, of course, is to be there at the end with a team that has the depth to withstand injuries, fatigue and foul trouble better than last season.
That’s what we all should be watching – and forget the narrative about who’s playing well, who isn’t and how Hubert is reacting to any of the noise that is bound to follow Carolina’s record 10th top-ranked preseason entry.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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