NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 NCAA Tournament champions

11) 2009 North Carolina Tar Heels

Record: 34-4, 13-3 in ACC

This North Carolina Tar Heels team was loaded and entered the 2008-09 season as the prohibitive favorite to win the national championship. After all, they returned essentially everyone from their Final Four team the year before. So it was no surprise that they started the season ranked No. 1. Some were even discussing the possibility about them going undefeated in the preseason.

That No. 1 ranking was a mark the Tar Heels held until Jan. 4, when a loss to the Boston College Eagles snapped their 13-0 start. In fact, all four of their losses came in ACC play. One loss came in the ACC Tournament and those four losses came by a combined 16 points. Essentially, North Carolina had an opportunity to win all four of those games and was never being blown out at any point.

North Carolina’s class really showed in the NCAA Tournament, as they blew out everyone. No, seriously. Everyone.

The Tar Heels won all six games by at least 12 points, including a 14-point win over the Villanova Wildcats in the Final Four and a 19-point win over the Michigan State Spartans in the title game. It was the kind of run that was unremarkable simply because of the level of dominance North Carolina displayed.

This was a great college team. The quartet of Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green and Tyler Hansbrough could go up against anyone. All were solid role players in the NBA (and you can throw Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller into that mix), but all were better college players than pro players.

That didn’t matter then but, without a real signature moment in their season, the Tar Heels barely miss the top-10.