UNC Basketball: Five bold predictions for the 2018-19 season

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CHARLOTTE, NC – MARCH 16: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts at the start of the second half against the Lipscomb Bisons during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Spectrum Center on March 16, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

UNC will make their third Final Four in four years

This North Carolina team will have a rare combination of invaluable returning experience with top-tier incoming freshmen talent. A very similar combination to that of UNC’s back to back Final Four teams in 2016 and ’17.

There will not be a senior trio better than Maye, Williams, and Johnson, and the freshmen class of Little, White, and Black is one of the best groups in the nation.

Add in the expected development of returning role players like Woods, Robinson, Brooks, and Manley, along with Roy Williams’s brilliance in March, and you have a formula that equals another deep tournament run for the Tar Heels.

Carolina is also playing a very difficult non-conference schedule, which will bode well for them in March for two reasons.

First of all, it will allow the young Tar Heels to get some much-needed experience against top-notch competition, and second, it will improve UNC’s strength of schedule and BPI ranking, two factors the NCAA Tournament Selection committee takes into account in March.

While there could be some growing pains early due to relative youth, UNC should be one the best teams in the country all year, and will play into early April.

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