Expected but not nearly as important as where you finish.
UNC received 30 of 31 first place votes to start the season #1 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. The one "dissenter" tabbed Kentucky as #1 and UNC as #2. I am curious as to who gave their vote to Kentucky. Perusing the list of coaches at the bottom of the poll, no one jumps out at me unless you want to believe Tommy Amaker or Herb Sendek are exercising some old rivalry tendencies. Actually scratch that regarding Sendek. He never got worked up about UNC when he was at NC State, I seriously doubt he does now. Amaker is probably too busy trying to figure how to beat Boston College again which shouldn't take that long.
Not that it matters. It is not like UNC enjoys the kind of gap between them and the competition a la 2009. Still, UNC is the only team that returns all five starters from a team which made a deep NCAA Tournament run. Everyone is replacing parts and while Kentucky has a ton of talent, some key components, such as PG, are inexperienced. Like Roy Williams, I am a firm believer that talent plus experience is the winning ticket. UNC has that in buckets but even beyond that they have a starting unit which has played together for much of one season. That already puts them ahead of the curve not to mention they are all motivated to win big.
Other notables in the poll: Duke is ranked sixth rounding out the ACC representation. Yes, that really needs to change.
UNC's opponents on the list included: #2 Kentucky, #6 Duke and #14 Wisconsin. Just outside the top 25 are FSU, Texas and Michigan State.