10. North Carolina (2-1)
There’s plenty of potential for the Tar Heels this season but it’s impossible to deny that things are very different in Chapel Hill. They lean heavily on RJ Davis and some young talent, with the staff still looking for consistency in replacing Armando Bacot. North Carolina had a pretty strong season last year and have the talent for a repeat performance, going so far as bringing Kansas to the wire in Lawrence last week.
Things were far easier for the Tar Heels this week as they coasted to a 107-55 blowout win over American. After significant issues in their first two games, North Carolina owned the paint against an inferior Eagles team, controlling the game in all aspects. Both Elliot Cadeau and Jalen Washington scored 18 points on a night where the Tar Heels made 59% of their field goal attempts.
For all intents and purposes we really did not learn much about this team with that win on Friday night. We saw that North Carolina can fight, clawing back from that massive hole against Kansas before faltering late. Hubert Davis and this team are going to bring it on a nightly basis, but it remains to be seen if their frontcourt is strong enough to be a consistent contender this season. Their next batch of games is all in Hawaii, heading there early before the Maui Invitational to face the Rainbow Warriors next week.