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Please, we don’t want another unrealistic repeat of 2023!
The Tar Heels’ late sprint to the Final Four in 2022 resulted in a preseason No. 1 ranking the next summer. Four starters were back, but Pete Nance turned out to be no replacement for the consequential Brady Manek.
Is it happening again, with even less reason for a high ranking heading into the 2024-25 season?
Hubert Davis’ first year at the helm was unforgettable. First, the team looked like it had a new head coach for most of the season. Then, the Heels got hot and avenged a 20-point home loss to Duke with one of the greatest wins in Durham among the many Carolina has had over there.
In the NCAA Tournament, big shots by departed Dontrez Styles against Baylor and controversial Caleb Love versus UCLA – plus a HUGE break when Saint Peters upset Purdue in the Sweet 16 – left the Heels as a prohibitive favorite to reach the Final Four.
And then they did it again, behind just about everyone from Bacot to Leaky to Love to R.J. to Manek, and beat Duke for a second time in a month. Despite losing a 15-point lead and the national championship game to Kansas, the two beDeviling wins and a return to the Final Four sent Carolina fans to the moon.
When the 2023 team slipped off the NCAA bubble late in the next season and became the first projected No. 1 team to not punch its ticket to the Big Dance, expectations fell drastically after seven players transferred and two graduated.
Davis pieced together the old (Bacot and R.J. Davis) and the new (Cadeau, Ingram and Ryan), as the revamped Tar Heels won their first outright ACC regular season since 2017 and reunited with the NCAA tourney as a No. 1 seed. Even a disappointing Sweet 16 loss to Alabama hasn’t calmed the excitement.
The latest “way too early” polls find UNC in the top five, the top three in some rankings. How can that be with an almost brand-new front court and one of the smallest, yet slickest, backcourts in the country? Cormac Ryan will be replaced by transfer Cade Tyson, Ingram by transfer Van-Ellen Lubin and Bacot by a committee led by junior Jalen Washington.
Are we being set up for another 2023 fall? Recruiting from the portal may not be over, but no one is left who can come close to Bacot’s place as a leader and rebounder. And until Carolina can score consistently from inside and dissuade the double teams on R.J., all we can do at this point is hope that true 5-star freshmen Ian Jackson and Drake Powell set the world on fire.
Featured image via Associated Press/Adrian Kraus
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
