2024-2025 College Basketball Preview: North Carolina Tar Heels

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The college basketball season is less than two weeks away, and here at FTN Fantasy we have you covered for what promises to be another thrilling year of upsets and incredible finishes. We will be previewing each team from all of the major conferences along with some mid-majors as well. We will recap betting trends from last season, list projected starters, preview the season and talk about any key players for that program.

The ACC is home to some of the most storied programs in the history of college basketball. Lately, the Final Four champion has come out of the Big East or the Big 12, but the ACC has a great chance to reclaim the title of the best conference in CBB. There has been an influx of talent via the transfer portal, good old fashioned recruiting and the additions of SMU, Stanford and Cal. 

Let’s take a look at the North Carolina Tar Heels.

2024-25 College Basketball Season Preview: North Carolina Tar Heels

Conference: ACC
Head Coach: Hubert Davis (4th season)
2023-2024 Record: 29-8
ATS: 21-16
O/U: 19-17-1
Projected Starters: G RJ Davis, G Elliot Cadeau, G Seth Trimble, F Cade Tyson, C Jalen Washington

It’s certainly going to be weird seeing the Heels take the floor without Armando Bacot, but all of our kids grow up eventually. The Heels roster is full of athleticism and scoring pop, but their frontcourt is definitely looking like it could be a weak link. As we always say, guard play wins in March, but in November, it doesn’t hurt to have strong production from your frontcourt spots.

In addition to losing Bacot, they’ll also be turning the page from Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan, who were both a big part of a team that made the Sweet 16 last year. Getting one of the best guards in the country back in RJ Davis was a huge win for the Heels, and that was only made possible by the fact that we live in the NIL era. Davis, Elliot Cadeau and Seth Trimble is one of the more intriguing guard trios in the ACC. You have scoring, passing and high-level defense amongst them. Jalen Washington showed flashes at times whenever Bacot was in foul trouble or injured, so there is a path to success for him as the primary center, and Jae’Lyn Withers will need to channel his early career success during his Louisville days.

The freshmen class has three top-70 recruits in Ian Jackson, Drake Powell and James Brown. To me, the biggest miss of the portal last year was North Carolina not landing Dalton Knecht. He would have been the perfect fit for them, and I said it often before the year started. Instead, the Heels landed Paxson Wojcik. Knecht wound up being a prolific scorer for the Tennessee Vols, while Wojcik could barely find his way onto the floor. Fast forward to 2024 and the staff grabbed Belmont scorer Cade Tyson. He averaged 16.2 PPG and shot 47% from long-range (12th best in the country) last year. They also added Ven-Allen Lubin (12.3 PPG at Vanderbilt) and Tyzhaun Claude (4.8 PPG at Georgia Tech).

Key Player: RJ Davis

The Heels won’t have the same level of dominant post play without Armando Bacot, but the elite guard play will enhance this teams profile along with the maturation of Elliot Cadeau and Seth Trimble. The defending ACC POY will get to focus on scoring, and he is going to do so at a historic level. He averaged 21.2 PPG and shot 40% from beyond the arc, which is really good, but I think we see both of those numbers go up in his final collegiate season. 

Seth Trimble has shown vast improvement in the Tar Heels’ exhibition games, and it’s worth noting even though I always say to take those contests with a grain of salt. Opposing defenses won’t be able to simply put all of their attention on Davis, and he simply cooks in one-on-one situations.