UNC Basketball: Where Tar Heels land in 247Sports Top 25

The UNC basketball program combines returning starters with sensational newcomers in 2021, earning a top-20 preseason ranking in the process.

With the upcoming college basketball season just around the corner, the North Carolina Tar Heels are the No. 18 team in the 247Sports countdown for 2021-22.

That’s probably not a terrible place to be leading up to the team’s first season in nearly 20 years under the direction of somebody other than Hall-of-Famer Roy Williams. Sure, there’s some uncertainty with first-year head coach Hubert Davis at the helm, but we know that he embodies a number of the things that helped his predecessor cut down the nets three times in the month of April.

We also know that he returns quite a bit of talent to his 2021-22 roster, including junior center Armando Bacot. Bacot had a breakout season as a sophomore, recording team-highs in points (12.3), rebounds (7.8) and shooting percentage (62.8). He’ll enter his junior campaign as an early favorite for first team All-ACC honors, and a contender for conference Player of the Year.

The Tar Heels also welcome back a talented group of sophomore guards led by probable starters Caleb Love and Kerwin Walton. R.J. Davis and Anthony Harris will also see plenty of minutes in the North Carolina rotation, and we expect quite a bit of consistency and production out of that group.

Equally as important are the newcomers that Davis and his new-look coaching staff brought on board this offseason. The Tar Heels added a trio of players — Brady Manek, Dawson Garcia and Justin McKoy — via the NCAA transfer portal. He recently talked about what’s he expecting from them and how they help the Tar Heels following a couple of historically bad shooting seasons the past two years.

"“This year with Brady Manek and Dawson Garcia and Justin McKoy, their ability to spread the floor and to make plays and to shoot the ball from three gives our guys the spacing to be able to use all their gifts and talents out there on the floor,” Davis said. “And so that’s probably the major thing that would be different this year compared to last year.”"

And Davis is absolutely right. All three players, particularly Manek and Garcia, have the ability to knock down a lot of outside shots, and that will open up the paint more for Bacot to pour in close-range buckets. McKoy is also going to be a tremendous asset on the defensive end of the court, having been a part of the stingy Virginia Cavaliers defense for two seasons prior to his move to Chapel Hill.

We’ll get to see it all come together soon, as the Tar Heels begin their season on November 9 with a game against Loyola at the Dean Smith Center.

Check back with Keeping It Heel for more on that, and everything on the UNC basketball program.