**************************************************************************************
**************************************************************************************
North Carolina will debut in the Hubert Davis era as the No. 19 team in the preseason Associated Press college basketball rankings, which were released Monday afternoon.
The Tar Heels finished with 547 points from the tabulated votes, just 16 behind No. 18 Tennessee. Duke is the only ACC team ranked higher than the Tar Heels, as Mike Krzyzewski’s team will be begin his final campaign at No. 9.
Carolina has been ranked for at least one week in the AP poll in every season since the start of 1966-67. This is the 929th AP poll that includes UNC, more than any other school in the history of the poll. It is the 65th season in the 74-year history of the AP poll the Tar Heels have been ranked at least once.
Last season, Carolina was No. 16 in the preseason poll and was ranked for four additional weeks before dropping out of the poll. The Tar Heels are scheduled to play eight games this season against teams ranked in the preseason top 25 and at least five against top-10 opponents.
UNC will play No. 2 UCLA in Las Vegas, No. 6 Michigan at home in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, No. 7 Purdue in Uncasville, Conn., in the Basketball Hall of Fame Tipoff, No. 9 Duke home and away, No. 20 Florida State and No. 25 Virginia in Chapel Hill and either No. 4 Villanova or No. 18 Tennessee on the second day of the Hall of Fame Tipoff.
Davis was introduced as UNC’s coach on April 6, less than a week after legendary Roy Williams announced his retirement. Davis played four years at UNC from 1988-92 under Dean Smith and served as an assistant to Williams for nine seasons.
He played 12 years in the NBA and spent seven as an analyst on ESPN covering college basketball. Now, he is North Carolina’s head coach, and his team is full of talent and raring to get going.
"You can definitely feel the difference,” sophomore Kerwin Walton recently said. “It's a whole lot more energy; everybody's really excited for this season. Everybody has been developing and working hard and growing, so I think we're all really motivated to do really well this season.
“I think Coach Davis has done a really great job of motivating us, and having us work hard, and working with us to get better every single day. I think it's going to be a lot of positive energy with us on and off the court, and I think we're going to have a great year. "
Carolina is coming off an 18-11 season in which they were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Wisconsin. It was the only time in 30 NCAA appearances Williams’ team lost their opening game. For UNC, it was the first time the Tar Heels went down in the first round since 1999.
Davis’ first UNC club returns four starters and a few scholarship reserves in addition to adding three transfers and two freshmen.
At 6-foot-10 and 240 pounds, Armando Bacot is back after leading UNC in scoring with 12.3 points per game and rebounding at 7.8 per outing. In addition, he shot 62.8 percent from the floor. He was named third-team All-ACC last season.
Sophomore point guard Caleb Love, senior wing Leaky Black, and Walton are the other returning starters for the Tar Heels.
Love is coming off a season in which he averaged 10.5 points, 3.6 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per contest. Love also averaged 3.4 turnovers per contest, shot 32.9 percent overall from the floor, including 26.6 (34-for-128) from three-point range.
Walton was the lone consistent marksman from the perimeter last season. UNC shot 31.9 percent from three-point range as a team, its second worse accuracy rate ever, behind the 2019-20 squad, but Walton sank 42 percent of his treys.
The Minnesota native finished his freshman campaign averaging 8.2 points per game while converting 44.4 percent of his field goal attempts. Of his 79 made field goals, 58 were threes.
Carolina welcomed a trio of transfers, two of whom were highly accomplished at their previous schools.
Forward Justin McKoy transferred to UNC after two seasons at Virginia. Brady Manek, a 6-foot-9 true stretch forward, is the 14th all-time leading scorer at Oklahoma, and 6-foot-11 forward Dawson Garcia led Marquette in scoring and rebounding while making the Big East All-Freshman team last season.
Sophomore guard RJ Davis started 10 games last season and averaged 8.4 points per game. Some of his best hoops came late in the season, with his top performance a19-point effort in a win over Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament.
Freshman wing forward Dontrez Styles and shooting guard D’Marco Dunn are the true newbies in the program. They join returning reserves redshirt sophomore guard Anthony Harris and sophomore wing Puff Johnson on Carolina’s roster.
The Tar Heels will open the regular season against Loyola (Md.) at the Smith Center on November 9.
*Some of the information in this report is courtesy of UNC Athletics.
