UNC Ranked No. 19 to Start the Season

The initial Associated Press college basketball rankings were released Monday, and North Carolina will start the season ranked No. 19.

A year ago, the Tar Heels were ranked No. 1 in the nation, but they became the first such team to not make the NCAA Tournament since the field started expanding in the 1970s. UNC concluded its season 20-13 overall, including 11-9 in the ACC.

Only four scholarship Tar Heels return from the team: starters Armando Bacot and RJ Davis, and reserves Seth Trimble and Jalen Washington. Seven players transferred out of the program, five transferred in, and Hubert Davis also welcomed two scholarship freshmen.

“I like the pieces that we’ve added,” Davis recently said. “There are seven returning players and seven new players, and I really love the mix of this group.”

Davis specified two things that really stand out to him.

“One, is this is a group that enjoys and loves to compete,” he said. “They just really do. From the start, there’s never been an issue about preparing, practicing, and playing with a competitive fight and a competitive nature.

“The other part is, this group genuinely enjoys being around each other. Whether it’s on the court or off the court, they just enjoy the experience of doing this together, and that’s something I’ve really enjoyed being a part of and watching over the last four or five months.”

Bacot is back for a fifth season, as he’s taking advantage of the Covid year. Already UNC’s all-time leader in rebounds with 1,335, he will substantially add to that number. With 1,810 points, he will blow past the 2,000-point mark at Carolina, and likely could finish his career as the third leading scorer ever at UNC.

A year ago, Bacot averaged 15.9 points and 10.4 rebounds.

Senior guard RJ Davis averaged 16.1 points and 3.2 assists last season. He shot 35.5 percent from 3-point range as well.

From the portal, UNC brought in five players:

*Cormac Ryan (Notre Dame), a guard who averaged 12.3 points and shot 34.4 percent from the perimeter. He has scored 1,173 points in college and played 3,554 minutes.

*Harrison Ingram (Stanford), a forward who averaged 10.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists for the Cardinal. In two seasons, he has scored 682 points and played 1,915 minutes.

*Jae’Lyn Withers (Louisville), a forward who averaged 8.9 points and 5.3 rebounds last season. He has scored 651 points and played 1,841 minutes in his career.

*Paxson Wojcik (Brown), a guard who averaged 14.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3.2 assists last season. Wojcik played two seasons at Loyola (Ill) and two at Brown, and has scored 759 points and played 2,099 minutes in his career.

*James Okonkwo (West Virginia), a forward who was a reserve last season for the Mountaineers averaging 2.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in 11.0 minutes per game. He has scored 79 points and played 351 minutes in his career.

In addition, freshmen Zayden High, a 6-foot-10 forward, and Elliot Cadeau, a 6-foot-1 point guard, give Davis 11 scholarship players. Cadeau comes in as one of the top players in the class of 2023 and is expected to make a significant contribution.

So much is new about the Tar Heels, but RJ Davis believes changes were needed, and he’s confident the roster makeover is working well.

“A lot of the guys come from different programs, and we have freshmen as well,” he said. “It’s new, but I think the main message for us was to embrace that newness and come together as a team and establish a new culture, a new mindset, because last year is last year.

“And I think we have a new team with a different goal in terms of just trying to get to know each other, and I think the main thing this past summer and this preseason was to get a feel for each other’s games. And so far, the chemistry has been great on and off the court.”

The Tar Heels open the season November 6 at home versus Radford. They play in the Battle 4 Atlantis the week of Thanksgiving, in which the Heels will face two power conference teams, host Tennessee in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge, take on defending national champion UConn at Madison Square Garden, face Kentucky in Atlanta, and Oklahoma in Charlotte.

UNC begins ACC play with a home game versus Florida State on December 2. They jump into league play for good January 2 at Pittsburgh.