North Carolina NCAAB Tournament Preview

Have North Carolina the strength in depth to win March Madness 2008?

Is there a more storied name in College hoops than North Carolina? Does College basketball have a greater Shangri-la than Chapel Hill? Can you set Final Four odds without thinking Tar Heel at every turn? The answer to the first two is open to debate, but the answer to the third is writ large in every Hoops Handicapper primer in the nation.

North Carolina is second only to Kentucky as the winningest College Basketball team of all time, and last cut down the nets after the Championship game in 2005. North Carolina looked like it would be in a rebuilding mode for a time after that, but a 6’9” 245 pound phenom from Poplar Hills, MO, has put the Heels right back in the hunt for March Madness 2008.

Although the supporting cast is stronger now around Tyler Hansbrough than when he was a freshman, there can be little doubt that North Carolina’s chances at the NCAA Tourney rest on Hansbrough’s broad shoulders. So far he hasn’t let North Carolina down, but basketball is still a team game and one man can only do so much. This was proved in early February this year when North Carolina lost at Chapel Hill to the one team to whom the Tar Heels hate to lose more than any other – Duke. The Blue Devils’ strength in depth eventually wore UNC resistance down, and Duke had its first win over North Carolina in three games. How sweet for Duke, but bitter, bitter mead for the Heels.

And that’s now the question that faces North Carolina. Roy Williams knows he has a rainmaker in Hansbrough, but can Williams supply his star with a supporting cast? On such questions are Championships won