UNC still the 1?

Last week North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams released his long-awaited autobiography: “Hard Work: A Life on and Off the Court.”

Mixed in with tales from his childhood and his ascension through the coaching ranks are stories about Williams’ national championship teams from 2005 and 2009.

If the momentum continues in Chapel Hill, that portion of the book may need an addendum. Perhaps as early as this year.

The Tar Heels may have lost four players – including all-time leading scorer Tyler Hansbrough – to the NBA draft, but don’t shed any tears for them.

Seven months after capturing last season’s NCAA title, North Carolina has enough pieces to contend for a third straight Final Four berth in 2010, and maybe even another national championship. It’s a quest that will begin in earnest tonight when North Carolina opens the college basketball season against Florida International in the Dean Dome.

“When you take a step back and look at it, we do have a chance to be a good team,” Williams said. “We have a couple of major question marks, and they’re not going to be answered in practice. We have to wait and see how things happen during games.”

The Tar Heels are ranked sixth in the preseason Associated Press poll despite the loss of Hansbrough, point guard Ty Lawson, and perimeter standouts Danny Green and Wayne Ellington. So it’d be inaccurate for Williams’ squad to play the ‘no respect’ card.

Still, the offseason buzz around college basketball has centered more on Kansas and Kentucky than it has North Carolina.

The hiring of John Calipari at Kentucky was arguably the biggest news of the spring and summer – especially after he signed what could end up being the best recruiting class in the sport’s history. At Kansas, the Jayhawks are the overwhelming favorite to win their second national title in three years thanks to the return of center Cole Aldrich and point guard Sherron Collins, each of whom could’ve turned pro.

As good as those teams will be, though, the Tar Heels won’t be far behind. Or at least they shouldn’t be by the end of the season.

“This is a team you’d like to have a few more days of practice with,” Williams told reporters after Friday’s exhibition victory over Belmont Abbey. “We’ve got two seniors and one junior and the rest are freshmen and sophomores. Even [sophomore] Tyler Zeller said in the locker room that he felt like a freshman again.”

Indeed, North Carolina’s youth and lack of significant experience will be its biggest detriment, especially on the perimeter, where Larry Drew replaces Lawson at point guard. Known for his speed, Lawson is now a member of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets. Drew averaged just 9.6 minutes and 1.4 points as Lawson’s backup in 2008-09. Williams said he hopes Drew doesn’t put too much pressure on himself.

“He’s not Ty, and he’s not going to be Ty,” Williams said.

Williams is hoping freshman combo guard Dexter Strickland can also play the point at times along with senior Marcus Ginyard, a senior defensive specialist and leader who redshirted last season because of an injury.

North Carolina may be green on the perimeter, but it can’t get much stronger in the paint. Only Texas, Kentucky and Kansas tout frontcourts that rival the one that will take the floor this year for UNC. Zeller returns along with senior Deon Thompson, who will likely end his career as the winningest player in school history. Thompson has started 76 games during the past three years.

“I want to win another national title,” Thompson told reporters at ACC Media Day. “That’s what it boils down to. This team has the potential to make that happen. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

While Thompson is the veteran of the frontcourt, he is far from the most-talked about player. Instead that distinction belongs to Ed Davis, a 6-foot-11 center who likely would’ve been a top-10 NBA draft pick last spring despite averaging just 6.7 points off the bench as a freshman.

The 2009-10 season will likely be Davis’ last as a Tar Heel, and the same could be said for incoming freshman John Henson, the fifth-ranked player in the Class of 2009 according to Rivals.com. Along with excelling in the paint, Henson can handle the ball and score away from the basket, as well.

One website, DraftExpress.com, predicts that Davis and the 6-foot-10 Henson will be the sixth and ninth players taken, respectively, in next spring’s draft.

Bottom line: Tar Heels fans better enjoy them while they can.

“We are absolutely loaded with big men,” Ginyard told reporters. “It’s ridiculous how much potential all these guys have.”

The question now is how quickly they’ll reach it.

While tonight’s game against Isiah Thomas’ Florida International squad is expected to be lopsided, it’s not as if Tar Heels won’t be tested in the non-conference. They’ll play Ohio State and either California or Syracuse in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic later this month before taking on Michigan State (Dec. 1), Kentucky (Dec. 5) and Texas (Dec. 19).

Each of those final three teams enters the season ranked ahead of North Carolina. But they may not be by the end of December.

The Tar Heels, once again, are that good.

Or at least they should be. We’ll find out soon enough.