North Carolina Basketball: Are the Tar Heels quietly the best team in 2018-19?

North Carolina Basketball is a consensus top-10 team in preseason rankings but is not mentioned among the top-tier of national championship contenders. They should be.

It’s rare for a program like the North Carolina Tar Heels to be overlooked going into a new season, but that’s exactly the case with head coach Roy Williams’ squad going into 2018-19.

I know what you’re thinking. Overlooked? They’re near the top of every batch of preseason rankings I can find! And you’re right – but they’re nowhere near high enough.

First, it was rival Duke that dominated the headlines because of their historic recruiting class, and then it became Kentucky after they landed a pair of five-star prospects late in the recruiting process (E.J. Montgomery, Ashton Hagans) and the best grad transfer available in Reid Travis.

Kansas is also universally beloved thanks to their combination of incoming freshmen, returning veterans, and impact transfers in Dedric and K.J. Lawson. Reigning SEC co-champs Auburn and Tennessee also get the “don’t sleep on this team!” designation while both Gonzaga and Nevada are mid-majors that have a realistic chance to win a national championship.

Meanwhile, UNC gets glossed over as a good team that doesn’t quite cut it in the top-tier – which is something that doesn’t make a lot of sense. What you’ll see coming up is that the Tar Heels have just about everything a team needs to be a title contender – whether they’re viewed that way or not.