One of the things we really enjoy at Tar Heel Illustrated is diving into the past history of North Carolina’s football and basketball programs. And ranking players and teams has been an annual endeavor that generates plenty of discourse among our readers.

We change it up each year, and this offseason is no different as we unveil the top two UNC basketball teams from basically each decade. This is a 9-part series that begins with the top two teams before the 1940s and then we do each remaining decade.

The current decade is not included as it’s only half over.

So, here is the eighth installment of our 9-part series ranking the top two UNC basketball teams from each decade:

2009

Record: 34-4 (13-3 ACC)

NCAA Tournament: NCAA champions

ACC Tournament: Lost in semifinals

Ranking: 1

Coach: Roy Williams

All-Americans: Tyler Hansbrough; Ty Lawson

All-ACC: Tyler Hansbrough (1st); Ty Lawson (1st); Danny Green (3rd).

Honors: Ty Lawson, ACC Player of the Year, NCAA South Region MOP; Wayne Ellington, Final Four MOP.

When this team was rolling, it was as good or better than any team ever at UNC. Some might say, since the ’09 Tar Heels won it all, they are the last great college basketball team.

They steamrolled over the competition, reaching the 100-point mark nine times and blowing out teams such as Kentucky by 19, Oregon by 29, Michigan State (in Detroit) in the regular season by 35 a good Nevada team on the road by 23, and Notre Dame by 15 on a neutral floor.

During a December win at home over Valparaiso, Tyler Hansbrough became UNC’s all-time leading scorer. In an NCAA Tournament first-round win over Radford, he became the ACC’s all-time leading scorer. Hansbrough is also UNC’s all-time leading rebounder.

The Tar Heels swept Duke, meaning their win in Cameron Indoor Stadium (by 14 points), made the senior class 4-0 in games played in Duke’s fabled hall.

These Heels had it all. Ty Lawson’s game matured into the ACC Player of the Year, an earned honor as he ended up the Heels’ best player over the second half of the season. With Marcus Ginyard out for the season, Danny Green had a terrific campaign making himself into an NBA player. Wayne Ellington was a smooth, efficient complement to Lawson and Hansbrough, Deon Thompson gave the starting five stability and more scoring when needed, and the bench that included future NBA big men Tyler Zeller (who was injured some during the season) and Ed Davis along with Bobby Frasor made this one of the great ACC teams of all time.

They are the last team to win the national title taking every game by double digits and excluding a 43-point win in the first round, the Tar Heels’ average margin of victory over their last five NCAA Tournament games was 15.6, including a 17-point win over Michigan State again in Detroit. The Heels led 40-20 at one point in the first half, meaning they had a margin of plus-55 over the Spartans in a 55-minute span that season inside Ford Field in Detroit.

2005

Record: 33-4 (14-2)

NCAA Tournament: NCAA champions

ACC Tournament: Lost in semifinals

Ranking: 2

Coach: Roy Williams

All-Americans: Raymond Felton; Sean May; Rashad McCants.

All-ACC: Sean May (1st); Raymond Felton (1st); Rashad McCants (3rd); Jawad Williams (3rd).

Honors: Sean May: Final Four MOP, Syracuse (East) Region MOP; Marvin Williams ACC Rookie of the Year; Raymond Felton, Bob Cousy Award.

Never has a senior class at UNC gone from one end of the spectrum to the other quite like the class of 2005. From the worst season in school history (8-20) as freshmen to winning the national championship - with a very public termination of their ex-Tar Heel head coach in the process - Jawad Williams, Melvin Scott and Jackie Manuel can speak of an experience like nobody else that has been a part of this fabled program.

They had help, of course, as the loaded junior class in 2005 led the way, though Williams and Manuel were starters. But point guard Raymond Felton's growth and improved perimeter shooting, Rashad McCants beautifully handled by Roy Williams, and one of the greatest individual runs by a Tar Heel turned in by Sean May were the cornerstones of the championship.

Supremely talented Freshman Marvin Williams accepted a reserve role in his only season as a Tar Heel, and it was enough to give the bench enough bite to cut down the nets for Williams' first national title.

Some pundits discredited Roy Williams by suggesting he won it with Matt Doherty's players, but that’s ignoring the mess he inherited and how much coaching was necessary to get that group in the same page while completely overhauling the culture within the program. He gained the players’ trust and molded them into a fortified and united bunch that ended the season as the best club in the nation. It was one of the great coaching jobs in UNC history.