CHAPEL HILL – It has been a while, but North Carolina's basketball team is starting to look like North Carolina again.

The Tar Heels have won six of their last seven games, with the latest win coming at Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. This is the program’s best run since the beginning of last season when they won seven of their first eight games.

Carolina has also won three straight contests during this period, beating Wake Forest and NC State at home before defeating the Panthers, and have only lost one game in 2021, which came at Florida State, which currently sits in second place in the ACC.

For senior forward Garrison Brooks, who finished with 16 points, six rebounds and two assists against Pittsburgh, this team’s success as of late reminds him of his early years in Chapel Hill when the Tar Heels earned No. 2 and No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament before falling to 14-19 a year ago.

“I mean, we're winning games, playing together, just being ourselves,” Brooks said. “The biggest thing is winning. I mean, that's the difference in my first two years and last year.”

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing this season, however. The Tar Heels ended 2020 by winning only two games in six, with losses against Texas, Iowa, NC State and Georgia Tech and wins coming over NC Central and Kentucky, who have a combined record of just 6-13.

Even more staggering, the win over Pittsburgh is UNC’s first Quadrant 1 victory of the season, which is the most valued ranking used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee. To put it in perspective, Carolina is just 1-4 against Quad 1 teams, so the win certainly helps UNC as it begins positioning itself for inclusion in the NCAA Tournament.

Despite their struggles at times this season, Brooks believes it’s all a part of the process, especially when considering three of this team’s top five leading scorers are true freshmen.

"It's a part of growth,” Brooks said. “I think you're gonna struggle a little bit at times, it's just weathering the storm, keep getting better every day, working hard every day. So, I mean, now we're just reaping the benefits and we can only get better from this."

Sophomore forward Armando Bacot, who currently leads the Tar Heels with 12.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, was on last year’s team and knows better than most the struggles this program has been through over the last 12 or so months. In Bacot’s eyes, the difference between then and now is a newfound confidence and belief.

"Last year was kind of more like we just felt outmatched,” Bacot said. “Teams were just actually better than us. But this year I feel like, from a talent standpoint of view, I feel like we can compete with anybody. It's just putting it all together."

Bacot believes this team can still improve, too.

“I feel like, on this trip, we’re just getting a lot better,” Bacot said after Tuesday night’s win. “We're starting to talk more on defense, everybody's starting to play how they're supposed to play, so it's been going good.”

Despite this historic program starting out 5-4 after last year’s shocking record, the Tar Heels are playing some of their best basketball in a long time, and that’s a huge positive as they dive deeper and deeper into ACC play.