North Carolina Basketball: 2017-18 preview of the defending champs
By Bryan Mauro
North Carolina basketball is a staple at the top of the polls in college basketball. After a national title last year, how do they follow up in 2017-18?
The North Carolina Tar Heels should need no introduction. It rarely happens that a team plays in two straight National Championship games. The Tar Heels won the championship last year against Gonzaga team and the year before Villanova and the Tar Heels treated the nation to the best title game of the last two decades.
North Carolina lost a couple of key pieces from their title team last year but replaced them with top freshmen. The Tar Heels return all of their backcourt and many key bench players. The former bench players should now be starters and ready to contribute more minutes. Roy Williams appears to have reloaded the Tar Heels going into the 2017-18 season.
North Carolina goes into the year as the second-best team in the ACC behind the Duke Blue Devils. The Tar Heels will be ranked near the top of the rankings all year. Do not be surprised if North Carolina makes a run, finds a way to win the ACC regular season, grabs a top seed in the NCAA tournament, and ultimately makes a run in the NCAA tournament again.
Like many other top teams, Coach Roy Williams needs to adjust after a great deal of roster turnover following a championship season. Coach Williams and company have done a great job navigating those tricky waters thus far. This year should be more of the same for the Heels as their Freshman appear poised to make a huge impact.