North Carolina

After entering last year ranked No. 6 in the preseason polls, North Carolina proved to be arguably the biggest disappointment of the college basketball season despite possessing one of the top recruiting classes in the nation. The team stumbled all season after losing key players to the NBA, resulting in a 5-11 conference record and failing to make the NCAA Tournament.

Much of the weight for returning the Tar Heels to success will fall on the shoulders of Harrison Barnes, the country’s top recruit who selected North Carolina over Duke with a nationally televised Skype call. Barnes, a 6-foot-8 small forward, is the first ever freshman to be selected a preseason All-American, and he joins an elite recruiting class that also features shooting guard Reggie Bullock and point guard Kendall Marshall.

One of the main storylines to watch this season will be if the Tar Heels’ talented youth can make up for the dearth of veteran talent. There is only one senior on the team, Alabama transfer forward Justin Knox, and it is unclear how much of a role he will have while battling for minutes with sophomore John Henson. The other key frontcourt player will be seven-foot junior Tyler Zeller, who will play the featured role down low.

In the backcourt, Barnes and Bullock are both expected to start on the wing with junior Larry Drew II handling the point guard duties. For the Tar Heels to improve on last year’s struggles, Drew will have to mature in the point guard role. With dynamic stars such as Barnes and Bullock on the team, he won’t be depended on for scoring, but he will have to decrease the 3.2 turnovers per game he averaged last year.

North Carolina faces a challenging but reasonable out-of-conference schedule, facing three preseason top-25 teams in Illinois, Kentucky and Texas. Should their young talent prove mature enough through the first couple months of the season, the Tar Heels will be a dangerous force come March.