UNC BASKETBALL AMONG TOP FIVE IN LATEST PROJECTED RANKINGS

Some have the 2024-25 UNC basketball team just outside their top 10. Others see the Tar Heels beginning the season just inside that mark. But CBS Sports' Gary Parrish has been high on Hubert Davis' roster construction for quite some time.

In early June, Parrish placed UNC at No. 4 in his "Top 25 And 1" projections. And in the college hoops insider's first July update on Monday, No. 4 is where the Tar Heels remain, one notch above defending back-to-back national champion UConn but below No. 3 Houston, the program that ended Davis' third season at the helm in No. 2 Alabama, and No. 1 Kansas.

Here is Parrish's overall reasoning behind a bright outlook on reigning ACC Player of the Year guard RJ Davis and his fifth group of UNC basketball teammates:

"This ranking is based on Hubert Davis' Tar Heels returning five of the top eight scorers...from a team that won the ACC regular-season title and secured a No. 1 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. UNC is also adding a top-10 recruiting class — one highlighted by five-star prospect Ian Jackson, five-star prospect Drake Powell, Belmont transfer Cade Tyson and Vanderbilt transfer Ven-Allen Lubin — that should give the program a legitimate chance to make a 22nd appearance in the Final Four."

No. 9 Duke is the only other ACC team in Parrish's top 25. Unfortunately for the conference, Parrish isn't alone in once forecasting another down year outside of its blueblood archrivals on Tobacco Road.