The North Carolina Tar Heels have had an up and down season so far. After being as high as No. 11 in the AP Top 25 Poll, they are now No. 16 but will fall again due to a recent loss at NC State. After a five-game win streak, UNC has now lost two of three games going into this weekend.
They appear to be a weird team to figure out overall but they have still proven that when healthy, they can be a top 15 team in the country.
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ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas seemed to agree, ranking the Tar Heels No. 15 in the country in his Bilas Index, which evaluates the top 68 teams in college basketball. That is the second-highest ranking for an ACC team behind Duke at No. 3. The rest of the ACC in his index includes Virginia (No. 21), Louisville (No. 23), Clemson (No. 29), SMU (No. 36), Miami (No. 38), NC State (No. 39), Virginia Tech (No. 53) and Stanford (No. 64).
Here’s what he had to say about the Tar Heels:
Hubert Davis made Derek Dixon, the freshman, his starting point guard, and the Tar Heels reeled off five straight wins, including an all-time thriller over Duke. Dixon is unafraid and can shoot it, and he clearly can operate under pressure. The pass he threw to Seth Trimble for the winning shot was gutsy — and I still don’t know how it got through the defense. Before his injury, Caleb Wilson was as productive and explosive as any player (let alone freshman) in the country, and Henri Veesaar has been a double-double machine. His performance in the second half against the Blue Devils was a major reason Carolina triumphed. Now, the key is sustaining that kind of effort for longer stretches of games.
Now, Bilas made this statement BEFORE Veesaar’s injury. That obviously plays a big role in this and how far North Carolina can go this season.
North Carolina began a tough road stretch this week with a loss to NC State. They now head to Syracuse to face the Orange on Saturday. Over the next two weeks, the Tar Heels host Louisville, Virginia Tech and Clemson before finishing the regular season with a second matchup against Duke in Durham. Five of those six opponents are in, or are favored to be in, the NCAA Tournament.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC basketball: Jay Bilas has high praise for Tar Heels in latest Bilas Index
