Sports
College basketball rankings: North Carolina adds talent via the transfer portal, joins early Top 25 And 1 – CBS Sports
Play Now
Fantasy Football
Play Now
Football Pick’em
See who to add and drop
PGA Tour and beyond
North Carolina was ranked No. 1 in last season’s preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll but ultimately missed the 2023 NCAA Tournament, making the Tar Heels the biggest disappointment in college basketball.
Perhaps they’ll disappoint again.
Who knows?
But Hubert Davis and his staff have done enough work in the transfer portal this offseason to compel me to move UNC into Version 8.0 of the 2023-24 CBS Sports preseason Top 25 And 1. UNC is the new No. 26.
The most recent addition came this weekend, when Harrison Ingram, a transfer from Stanford, publicly committed to North Carolina. He joined Jae’Lyn Withers (Louisville) and Cormac Ryan (Notre Dame) as quality high-major transfers who will likely start at UNC alongside returning stars R.J. Davis and Armando Bacot, and I’m just going to trust that a team starting those five players is going to be good. As always, we’ll see.
In other Top 25 And 1 movement, I dropped Creighton down to No. 11 because Arthur Kaluma has declared for the 2023 NBA Draft. The 6-foot-7 forward is reportedly maintaining his college eligibility, but nothing in his announcement made it sound like he’s planning to return to Creighton. If he does, I’ll readjust accordingly. But, for now, I’m assuming Kaluma is done with college.
Creighton’s drop allowed Alabama to move up one spot to No. 6 in the Top 25 And 1. Like North Carolina, the Crimson Tide have added two notable transfers over the past week — Hofstra‘s Aaron Estrada and Cal State Fullerton‘s Latrell Wrightsell Jr. Both averaged more than 16 points per game at the mid-major level last season.
UConn remains No. 1 in the Top 25 And 1 based on a projection that the Huskies will return four of the top six scorers — Tristen Newton, Alex Karaban, Donovan Clingan and Andre Jackson Jr., — from a team that won the 2023 NCAA Tournamen). Dan Hurley should combine that core with a top-five recruiting class highlighted by five-star prospect Stephon Castle and have a legitimate chance to become the first coach to win back-to-back national championships since Billy Donovan did it at Florida in 2006 and 2007.
© 2004-2023 CBS Interactive. All Rights Reserved.
CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Commissioner.com is a registered trademark of CBS Interactive Inc.
Images by Getty Images and US Presswire
