Michael Malone and UNC completely disrespected in another early Top 25 rankings

Well, this feels like a slap in the face.

North Carolina, despite Michael Malone doing yeoman's work in his first month with the Tar Heels, did not make Casey Jacobsen's top 25 rankings. The FOXSports college basketball analyst has a top five that includes Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Duke and Louisville. It's not the first too-early top 25 to be less-than-kind to the program this offseason.

I don't think anyone is petitioning for the Tar Heels to be a preseason top-10 team, but Malone just put together one of the most impressive offseason roster transformations in the country, adding five-star center Sayon Keita last week to the top five transfer class, and it doesn't get any respect. That doesn't seem wise.

UNC misses the cut for FOXSports' too-early top 25

What Malone has done thus far feels unprecedented. He jumps into a program without any college basketball experience over the past 25 years and has to navigate with nearly the entire roster leaving and needing to be replaced immediately.

He dove right into the fire and used the portal to rebuild the backcourt with Terrence Brown, who averaged nearly 20 points a game last season for Utah, and Matt Able, who was one of the top freshmen last season for N.C. State and should be one of the best in the ACC next season.

Malone is also stacking talent in the front court and along the wings. Everyone should be excited about what Neoklis Avdalas is going to bring to the offense as a 6-foot-9 wing that shot nearly 39 percent on 3-pointers last season with Virginia Tech. And the recent addition of big man Cade Bennerman, who took a redshirt last season with Northwestern.

Obviously, it's going to be this group, along with returning players like Jarin Stevenson, that has to go out and prove a lot of people wrong. It's also a chance for Malone, who has an NBA championship on his resume, to show the country that he hasn't lost a step. This looks like a top-25 roster and in time everyone will know that it is. 

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