NCAA Basketball: Updated WTE 2022-23 power rankings after transfer deadline

4. North Carolina Tar Heels

2021-22 record: 29-10 (15-5 in ACC)

Around a month before the start of the NCAA Tournament, North Carolina lost to Pittsburgh and looked as if they were going to miss the postseason entirely. Fast forward that month later and they were a minute away from winning it all. But the question was going to be how many of the four remaining starters would be willing to come back for another year since forward Brady Manek had no eligibility left?

Turned out, all four of them came back. It started with star big man Armando Bacot, followed by defensive standout Leaky Black and guards RJ Davis and Caleb Love. That’s around 50 ppg coming back, along with one of the better perimeter defenders in NCAA Basketball.

There will be some debate as to whether returning most of the core is worth being a top-5 team but few teams will have a better starting lineup than them. Regardless of the NCAA Tournament run that featured a win over 15 seed Saint Peter’s in the Elite 8, this is also the same team with enough mental toughness to beat Coach K in the two most difficult games possible.

Now the Tar Heels will need to find some depth. It could come among returning players such as Justin McCoy and Puff Johnson or among the top-50 incoming freshmen such as combo guard Seth Trimble and big man Jalen Washington. UNC might be the most debated team in the top-10 but with four starters returning, deserves to be in there.