The distinguished history of North Carolina’s basketball program is about as impressive as it gets in college basketball, and almost annually the Tar Heels live up to the standards of the program while layering on more success to go with its past.

UNC was named the No. 1 seed for the Midwest Region in the 2019 NCAA Tournament on Sunday evening, the program’s 17th No. 1 seed since the seeding process began in its mostly-current form in 1979. The next closest programs are Kansas and Duke with 14 No. 1 seeds each. Kentucky has been a regional top seed 12 times before a huge drop off to Virginia, which has now earned seven No. 1 seeds followed by Arizona with six.

UNC’s history as a No. 1 seed is rather impressive. Overall as a regional top seed, the Tar Heels are 61-11 and with three byes, which occurred before the field was expanded to 64 teams before the 1985 tournament.

UNC has five national championships and has advanced to the Final Four in 16 previous times as a regional top seed.

Remarkably, this is the eighth time UNC has landed a No. 1 seed in Roy Williams’ 16 seasons as head coach, and the Tar Heels’ record when a top seed under Williams is 33-4. UNC has reached at least the Elite 8 each time it’s been a one seed under Williams:

2005 – National title

2007 – Elite 8

2008 – Final Four

2009 – National title

2012 – Elite 8

2016 – National runner-up

2017 – National title

The 11 teams UNC has lost to as a top regional seed: Penn (1979); Indiana (1984); Syracuse (1987); Kansas (1991, 2008, 2012); Boston College (1994); Arizona (1997); Utah (1998); Georgetown (2007) and Villanova (2016).

UNC has defeated 48 different teams in NCAA Tournament play as a one seed but amazingly the Heels have beaten only eight teams more than once as a one seed. They are: Villanova and Michigan State four times each; Arkansas three times; Notre Dame, Louisville, Michigan, Temple and Gonzaga twice each.

Here are the 40 teams UNC has defeated one time while seeded atop a region: James Madison; Alabama; Houston; Georgetown; Penn; Northeastern; Eastern Michigan; East Carolina; Rhode Island; Cincinnati; Kansas; Liberty; Fairfield; Colorado; California; Navy; Charlotte; UConn; Oakland; Iowa State; Wisconsin; Illinois; Eastern Kentucky; Southern Cal; Mt. St. Mary’s; Washington State; Radford; LSU; Oklahoma; Vermont; Creighton; Ohio U.; Florida Gulf Coast; Providence; Indiana; Syracuse; Texas Southern; Butler; Kentucky and Oregon.

Note: Roy Williams twice faced a top-seeded UNC team when he was the head coach at Kansas. He and the Jayhawks defeated UNC in the Final Four in 1991 and two years later lost to the Heels in the Final Four.