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A new basketball season is upon us, and it basically feels like Christmas Eve for those of us who plan our lives around college hoops. UNC’s basketball team looks extremely different than it did this time a year ago, and it can be difficult to really know what to expect before the games actually get underway.
There is no better time than the day right before actual results come along to change things to fire off some last minute hot take predictions. I asked the Tar Heel Blog staff to give me their most spicy prediction for the season ahead and most of them were pretty optimistic about the Heels this season. The other two, well...
Here’s what we had to say:
Akil Guruparan: Heels win the conference regular season outright thanks to Cole Anthony taking a leadership role like we haven’t seen a freshman PG do in the Roy era and an overall weaker ACC than usual.
Al Hood: The sheer turnover in personnel will lead Carolina to be out of the top 25 by January.
Brandon Anderson: Christian Keeling will be 2nd on the team in scoring.
Bryson Gordon: Garrison Brooks thrives at the four and makes All-ACC first team.
Chad Floyd: Cole Anthony lives up to his billing, but nobody else really takes a leap. Heels are a 4/5 seed in the NCAAT.
Douglas Valentine: Leaky Black averages 12/5/5 and wins ACC Sixth Man of the Year.
Evan Davis: UNC is regular season champs again. Cole Anthony and Garrison Brooks are First Team All-ACC.
Jacob Cowden: Cole Anthony will be the outright ACC Player of the Year.
Jake Lawrence: Garrison Brooks and Christian Keeling will be All-ACC players.
Matt Ferenchick: UNC drop a weird one early a la Belmont/Northern Iowa, but get it together to finish at least second in conference.
Max Sloan: The Heels will sweep Duke thanks to a strong bond developing between Garrison Brooks and Cole Anthony. Leaky Black is a hero off the bench.
Tanya Bondurant: Christian Keeling does his best Cam Johnson impression to be the 1B to Cole Anthony’s 1A in helping lead the Tar Heels to a regular season title and Final Four appearance. Cole Anthony wins National Player of the Year.
Agree or disagree with anyone? Have hot takes of your own? Leave them in the comments below.