Mark Few will return six of his top eight scorers from a team that was the No.
If last year’s team had simply made the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight instead of being on the wrong end of one of the biggest March Madness upsets of all-time, would they be at the top of most or all of these early season rankings? It certainly seems possible. Kentucky was a 2-seed in the 2022 NCAA tournament, returns the unanimous National Player of the Year (the first NPOY to return to college basketball since Tyler Hansbrough came back to win a national title at North Carolina in 2008-09) as well as its starting point guard, and adds a pair of five-star studs in Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston. This may not be 2006-07 Florida returning everyone from a fairly dominant title run, but it’s more than enough to be the favorites to cut down the nets in 2023. They then produced the largest margin of victory (32 points) ever in an 8-9 game, bested reigning national champion Baylor in the second round, took down the aforementioned Bruins in the Sweet 16, ended the Cinderella run of Saint Peter’s, and then - have you guys seen this, have you heard about this - ended Mike Krzyzewski’s career in the Final Four. After a fairly woeful 12-6 start that included a 4-3 mark in a down ACC, UNC won 12 of its next 15 games to safely coast into the field of 68 as an 8-seed. While the Bruins limped into the 2021 NCAA tournament as a highly controversial inclusion, the Heels had hit their stride long before Selection Sunday. While many have already been quick to compare this North Carolina group to last year’s UCLA team - which had a good, but not great 2021-22 season following a surprise run to the Final Four the year before - it’s a comparison that falls a little flat upon closer inspection. Still, we’re talking about a UNC team that returns both of its star guards, its best defensive player in Leaky Black, and an almost surefire preseason First Team All-American in big man Armando Bacot. And the one member of the “Iron Five” who isn’t returning - the graduated Brady Manek - was the Tar Heels’ top outside threat and perhaps their most consistently reliable contributor down the stretch.
Davis were both sensational in March, but far too inconsistent during the other four months of the season. UNC spent the bulk of its first season under Hubert Davis either squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble or on the wrong side of it. 1 at all - when the preseason AP and coaches polls hit the internet in October. They earn the top spot here, but it’s unlikely that the Tar Heels will be anything resembling a unanimous No. North Carolina Tar HeelsĪ North Carolina team returning five of its top six scorers from a squad that ended its season in the national title game would seem like a no-brainer to be everyone’s preseason No. That’s typically the summer setup for a thrilling winter. 1 than I can remember in a long, long time. We start, of course, at the top, where there are more worthy candidates for the title of summer No. There are still plenty of major (and not so major) decisions looming from players still hanging out and clinking drinks in the transfer portal, but almost exactly four months from the start of the season, we have enough solid info at our disposal to take embark on a semi-educated attempt at ranking the 40 best teams in the sport. The deadline for college hoopers to decide whether or not they’re going to stay in the NBA Draft has come and gone, which means we finally have a (mostly) clear look at how the rosters for the top teams in the sport are going to look for the 2022-23 season.
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