NCAA Basketball: 8 programs with rough starts to 2023 offseason

2. North Carolina Tar Heels

UNC was a historical mess this past season, going from No. 1 in the preseason to unranked and missing the NCAA Tournament altogether. Head coach Hubert Davis had plenty of pressure to succeed and build a good enough roster to contend both in the ACC and nationally in 2023-24.

The Tar Heels five players to the transfer portal to this point. One was leading scorer and starter Caleb Love and depending on how you feel about it, that may have been a good thing. The problem is that even if losing Love was a good thing, they needed to replace him with a quality scoring guard to pair with RJ Davis.

North Carolina landed Paxson Wojcik, who averaged 14.9 ppg, 7.2 rpg, and 3.2 last season at Brown. He’s a good rebounding guard and shooter but how the 6’4 guard translates to the ACC level is a question. The team also brought in Jae’lyn Withers, a rotation piece off a 4-win Louisville squad. He’s a combo forward that can stretch the floor next to Armando Bacot but is he good enough to be a starter?

It’s early but the Tar Heels landed ideally, two bench players, not starters. And after losing several former top-100 talent off the bench, the team needs to add plenty more just to feel good about itself for next season. Otherwise, it’s going to get real dicey.