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

Star returners for UNC

For starters, the Tar Heels have perhaps the best returning player in the country in Luke Maye, who averaged 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game during a breakout junior campaign. He will be a mainstay on preseason All-American teams and will provide Carolina with a reliable go-to player.

Fellow returning starters Kenny Williams and Cam Johnson will also add more leadership and shooting, which has been one of UNC’s weak spots in recent years. As the game continues to become more perimeter oriented, the Tar Heels have not shot 36 percent from three-point range as a team since the 2012-13 season. Those three players combined to make 169 threes last year and will be even more of a focal point of head coach Roy Williams’ offensive attack.

Those three are part of eight returning players that were part of North Carolina’s rotation last season, meaning that the Tar Heels are not only going to be deep again in 2018-19 – they’re going to be deep with experience as well.

We’ve seen how much experience means in college basketball in recent years, particularly in the NCAA Tournament. Five of the last six national champions (Villanova in 2018 & 2016, UNC in 2017, UConn in 2014, and Louisville in 2013, though the NCAA wants us to wipe that from our memories) had rosters that were dominated by upperclassmen.

Having experience certainly isn’t anything new to Roy Williams’ teams in Chapel Hill, as it’s something they’ve had to rely on in recent years. Their recruiting has been limited in recent years by the NCAA investigation into the school and they’ve done a good job of developing stars at the college level.

However, what makes them different this year is the arrival of a stellar recruiting class. They landed two five-star prospects in Nassir Little, Coby White for the first time since 2014 and Little is the highest-rated recruit (No. 3 nationally) Williams has landed since Harrison Barnes in 2010.

Little, in particular, will give UNC an added dimension they haven’t had in the past. He’s a freak athlete at 6-7 and 220 pounds and, when coupled with his strength, there isn’t anything he can’t do on the basketball court – which is why he’s projected to be a top-five overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

His quickness and 7-1 wingspan allow him to defend all five positions and give him the tools to be an elite player on that end of the floor. While his jumper is still inconsistent, Little can get to and finish around the rim with ease. HIs developing jumper isn’t that much of a concern for the Heels either given the players we mentioned above.