#1: A Blessing and a Curse

    Recently, the North Carolina men's basketball team was named the number one team in the country in the preseason poll.
    While this is great news for any Tar Heels fan with Tyler Zeller, Harrison Barnes and John Henson returning to Chapel Hill, the ranking means there will a target on their backs all season. There will much greater pressure for them to have an excellent season and avoid being upset by a mid-major squad early in the season. Every move that the team makes will be analyzed in detail as the date draws nearer to their first meeting with Duke.
    For the Tar Heels to have the season that the media expects them to have, coach Roy Williams will have to remind his players to forget their place in the top 25, and play every game as if they were playing Duke. A two-hour loss of concentration is all it takes for the dreams of a perfect season to disappear and the shock of losing to a team that should have been an easy win, to set in.
    The Tar Heels will have to be at their best in a Dec. 3 showdown against Kentucky. While it is important to stay focused in every game, a loss against the Wildcats would not be tragic. A loss would ease the mounting tension that comes with the top ranking, and allow Williams and his players to focus on what is happening on the court.
    Showing how difficult it is to run the table and finish a season undefeated, it has been 35 years since a men's college basketball team finished unbeaten. The 1976 Indiana Hoosiers, coached by Bob Knight, ended the season 33-0 and captured a national title. In an era now where every game featuring a team that is undefeated is headline news, pulling off such a feat is both mentally and physically taxing. A team may finish a regular season with an unblemished record, only to lose in their conference tournament, or worse in the NCAA Tournament.
    While there is never a great time for a loss, it would be ideal to lose an early-season game against tough competition to allow the media to focus on the new flavor of the month and have the rest of the season to play well.
    Williams has a very talented groups of players at his disposal this season and it will interesting to see if they can manage to pull off an undefeated season, or if another team can run the table.