UNC Basketball: Where ESPN predicts Tar Heels finish in ACC

As the countdown to the 2021-22 college basketball season continues on, ESPN is rolling out there previews for each conference. On Tuesday, it was the Atlantic Coast’s turn as they made their predictions for the upcoming season including the UNC Basketball program.

And for ESPN, they have the Tar Heels as a contender in the ACC but not the top team.

ESPN is predicting that the Tar Heels will finish third in the conference behind Duke and Florida State in Hubert Davis’ first season in charge. The panel of Myron Medcalf, Jeff Borzello, John Gasaway and Joe Lunardi made their predictions with only Borzello picking UNC to finish second.

The entire panel picked Duke to win the conference as well as freshman Paolo Banchero to be the Player of the Year and Newcomer of the year, to no one’s surprise. There wasn’t a lot of love for UNC in the piece but they did each give an answer on Davis’ biggest challenge and Lunardi offered a surprising answer:

"I’ll go one further than John and say North Carolina has its usual Final Four ceiling. I’m not saying the Tar Heels are one of the four best teams in America or a likely No. 1 seed. But there is certainly enough talent on hand to win four NCAA tournament games.Carolina turned the page pretty well after Dean Smith retired, reaching a pair of Final Fours in three seasons under Bill Guthridge. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Hubert Davis does something equal or better in his first three years."

That’s an interesting comment as Lunardi does think this roster is talented enough to have a Final Four ceiling.

Davis’ inherited a roster that did lose three key big men in Day’Ron Sharpe, Walker Kessler and Garrison Brooks but he added a two-man recruiting class plus transfers Dawson Garcia, Brady Manek and Justin McKoy. They also return Armando Bacot, Caleb Love, Kerwin Walton and R.J. Davis from a season ago.

A Final Four trip would be something that UNC fans take this year and don’t sleep on them contending in the ACC, either.

For more on the UNC Basketball program, please check back with Keeping It Heel.