North Carolina’s outlook for the 2026-27 season keeps getting treated like a wait-and-see story, but the Tar Heels have already changed the conversation in one major way: Michael Malone is running the program now.
That hire is the biggest reason optimism is building in Chapel Hill. Malone, who had never dealt with the transfer portal before and didn’t know the players on the market, has still helped put together a competitive roster in just a few months. For a team that has gone out in the first round in each of the last two years, that matters.
Still, the outside view hasn’t caught up. ESPN’s Jeff Borzello released his latest “2026 Way-Too-Early Top 25 Rankings,” and North Carolina showed up all the way down at No.
- Nebraska, Iowa State, Purdue, and Villanova were all listed ahead of the Tar Heels, sitting just outside the top 25 themselves.
That placement also tells the story of where UNC stands in the ACC pecking order. Borzello’s list has North Carolina as the fifth-best team in the league, and the teams above them are spread out in a way that makes the gap feel pretty real.
Duke is No. 2, Virginia is No.
12, Louisville is No. 15, and Miami comes in at No. 18, 12 spots ahead of the Tar Heels.
The common thread in these projections is pretty clear: analysts are leaning heavily on the lack of continuity in Chapel Hill. New coach, new roster, new pieces to sort out.
That’s a fair starting point. But it also leaves Malone’s résumé out of the equation, and that’s a mistake if you’re trying to judge what North Carolina can become.
The expectation here is that the Tar Heels will outplay this early ranking. By the time the ACC tournament rolls around, they could be inside the top 25. And when the regular season ends, a third- or fourth-place finish in the conference tournament seeding feels within reach.
With Malone in charge, North Carolina has a real shot to get to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. The next few months will reveal plenty, but these early projections look too low for a team that has marquee players and a coaching staff upgrade behind it.
In Other News...
North Carolinas Offseason Rebuild Is Testing Michael Malone Right Away
Michael Malone is wasting little time finding out how quickly an offseason can turn into a roster project. After significant departures through the transfer portal and the NBA draft, North Carolina has spent the spring trying to stabilize its lineup, and the early returns have included a No. 9 transfer portal class nationally. The Tar Heels also brought in Chuck Martin, whose reputation for recruiting at Kentucky and Arkansas gives the staff another proven hand as it tries to rebuild on the fly.
The bigger question now is whether that mix of urgency and experience can keep producing. North Carolina has already shown it can land talent in a crowded market, but the challenge is sustaining that momentum while replacing what left and reshaping the roster around a new look. If Malone and his staff can turn this first wave into something more durable, it could be the start of a stronger recruiting cycle. [Read more 🡒]
Malone Sends A Clear Message About UNCs Biggest Roster Concern
Michael Malones first formal press conference of the season offered the first real public read on how North Carolinas frontcourt is shaping up under a new coach. He spent much of the session on the Tar Heels big men, going player by player through Sayon Keita, Alexander Samodurov, Cameron Fens and Jarin Stevenson, giving background on what each can bring and where they fit as the roster takes shape.
For a team trying to sort out its biggest question area before the season gets rolling, those evaluations mattered. Malones comments pointed to a frontcourt still very much in the process of being defined, with different body types, experience levels and skill sets in the mix, and the next step will be seeing which of those pieces can translate from praise in August to dependable minutes when the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
North Carolina's 1-0 Start Already Faces An Unwanted Test
North Carolina opened the season with a win over TCU, then spent the following week on the sideline while the chatter around the program kept building. The Tar Heels have a chance to move to 2-0 when they face East Tennessee State next, but the early momentum has already been complicated by a stretch of off-field uncertainty that has put a different kind of spotlight on Chapel Hill.
General manager Michael Lombardi resigned amid an investigation, and defensive coordinator Steve Belichick has been named in a separate investigation while on medical leave. So even with the record still clean, North Carolina is trying to keep its focus on football and turn a promising start into something sturdier before the noise around the program has a chance to linger any longer. [Read more 🡒]