And that is the quest to completely wash out the vomit like taste of that faithful Sunday last March with the bright, minty freshness of a national championship. UNC opens basketball practice with Late Night with Roy at the Smith Center. Doors open at 6 PM. There is plenty of buzz already about the Heels who come into the season the odds on favorite to win the ACC and one of the teams expected to be in San Antonio in April.
Leadership is in the forefront of concerns for this team and questions about who will step up and be the vocal leader this season might be a more important question to answer than who is in the starting lineup. Since everyone has a year or two under their belt the players will come into the preseason understanding the system and the expectations from Roy Williams. That is the advantage found when you begin the season with a group of experienced players. All the factors involved with acclimating and learning the college game has already been taken care of. So it will be interesting to see how UNC plays early in the season. Last season the youth showed in terms of inconsistent play, especially on defense. This season I expect most of that to be resolved and UNC will be ready to play from the gate.
In terms of media coverage the best sources for UNC info are Tar Heel Blue's 2007 Preseason Central which will have tons of articles and practice reports. Inside Carolina has pictures here and here as well as other features and links to local media coverage. I would also like to point to fellow blogger Jackie Manuel's Posse which does a great job providing an almost daily carnival of links to UNC related articles and post from all over the internet.
So between these sites and THF hopefully you will not have to go too far for your Tar Heel basketball fix.