CHAPEL HILL – Can a quiet basketball team contend for a national championship?

Or do clubs that cut down the nets always have their share of chest pounders, fanny slappers, screamers, and screw-you guys who get under the skins of opponents?

On the surface, the latter seems like a slam-dunk yes, and it’s certainly ideal. But it isn’t the only way to skin this cat. North Carolina’s fairly recent history offers such an example of a somewhat quiet team winning a title.

The 2017 Tar Heels weren’t a supremely loud bunch. Theo Pinson was, but Joel Berry wasn’t. Kennedy Meeks wasn’t. Neither was Isaiah Hicks, Tony Bradley, Nate Britt, and certainly not Justin Jackson. But they cut down the nets because they stayed who they were and didn’t try to be something they weren’t. It worked.

That brings us to the current Tar Heels. They are an admittedly quiet team. They have dudes that will yell on occasion, chest-pound at times, and they have veteran voices that should help the team navigate treacherous waters.

But they aren’t a emphatically boisterous by any means.

“The thing that we lack is the noise,” junior guard Seth Trimble said. “We had a lot of old guys last year who had been experienced and made sure that we were vocal and doing what we need to do. Because that’s a huge part. And I just think some of the younger guys, the transfers, they don’t really realize it because they haven’t played at North Carolina in front of 22,000 people. It will be something that we’re going to keep working on.”

Trimble does. So does RJ Davis, who enters his fifth season at UNC as the reigning ACC Player of the Year and within reach of becoming the program’s all-time leading scorer.

Carolina has 24-year-old forward Jae’Lyn Withers and junior big man Jalen Washington. But neither player has held enough of a role yet to resonate any attempts at leading by mouth, especially a loud mouth.

Both are light spoken, thoughtful, and come off as more voices of reason and not vigor. Withers sounds more like he should host a late-night radio show on a jazz station, and Washington comes off as a ninth-grade biology teacher.

Withers can bark, though. He’s done it before. Washington reaches a high decibel when screaming after slam dunks or blocked shots. They have it within them, but how much will come out over the next several months?

“I think we’re just still finding our personalities,” said Davis, who was picked by the media to win the ACC’s top honor again this season. “Last year we had a lot of personalities. You had Harrison, a goofball, Cormac, you never know with him, and Armando being a troll. You had Paxson as well. There was a lot of personality off the court, but it flowed on the court. This year, everyone’s still finding their voice.”

Harrison Ingram was playful one minute and squaring up with someone the next. Cormac Ryan, when not kicking over water coolers in practice, was uniquely unflappable and knew just the right times to drop verbal dimes on opponents.

And there was Armando Bacot, the clown prince of the Tar Heels for five seasons, but also as serious a competitor as the team had, and one who always had his teammates’ backs.

The current Heels, who return just five scholarship players from last year’s club, are working their way toward mixing and matching emotions, grit, and leadership. And loud voices.

“We’re vocal in our ways,” Trimble said. “I think I might be a little more vocal in a way, but I’m more fiery. I’m more start-the-argument and practice, that’s the type leader I am. He’s the, ‘Here we go guys and do this and that.’”

Cade Tyson could have some venom in his veins, so it’s been said. Ven-Allen Lubin is quiet, but could an across-the-board growth of the team in that direction pull Lubin along, extracting some juice? Or maybe he’s just not that guy, and the team doesn’t need a roster loaded with loudmouths, just a few with the right blend.

UNC Coach Hubert Davis sees his most decorated player as an easy choice to take on a strong leadership role.

“Him being in his fifth year, it would be very easy – he's had a historic career,” Hubert Davis said about RJ Davis. “ACC Player of the Year, First Team All-American. For him to stay in that spot and be disconnected with the others and his ability to reach out and connect the three freshmen, the three transfers, the four walk-ons and being able to bind us together as a team has been something that's been really special to all of us.”

That doesn’t mean the New York native will be loud. He can still harness that role while others make more noise. That may actually be the perfect blend.

Whatever comes of this team’s collective voice, it likely will take time to take full shape, and perhaps they will surprise themselves with more chatter than currently anticipated.