By Sonny Jones
Last season North Carolina surprised the college basketball world by reaching the NCAA championship game. This season, with four starters returning, the Tar Heels are expected to win it all.
Monday, the Tar Heels were ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press’ preseason poll. It’s the 10th time the Tar Heels have been preseason No. 1. Twice, in 1981-82 and 2008-09, they’ve gone on to win it all.
Honestly, polls mean nothing other than to create conversation and allow media to hype match-ups, but the Tar Heels should be No. 1 at this point with starters Caleb Love, R.J. Davis, Leaky Black and Armando Bacot back. UNC opens its season Nov. 7 against UNC Wilmington.
It will be interesting to watch how the Tar Heels handle going from being the hunter to the hunted. There will be ups and downs, but it’s hard to imagine UNC not making a deep tournament run.
• Only two other ACC teams are in the preseason poll. Duke is No. 7 under first-year head coach Jon Scheyer, and Virginia is No. 18.
• West Bladen’s Kaden Thurman and Lainey Autry will compete in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 2-A MidEast girls’ tennis regionals Friday at Ocean Isle Tennis Park. The duo is 16-1 this season and 42-7 in their careers.
• Fairmont and Clinton will represent the Southeastern Athletic Conference in the state girls’ dual team 2-A tennis playoffs. No. 7 seed Clinton (12-4) will host No. 10 East Carteret (7-7) and No. 14 Fairmont (11-4) will play at No. 3 Greene Central (17-3) in the first round Wednesday.
• Could the Carolina Panthers be any more of a mess? The team is 1-5, has fired its head coach, traded disgruntled receiver Robbie Anderson after he got into a sideline confrontation with an assistant coach, finished Sunday’s loss to the Rams with the practice team quarterback and are uncertain who may be the QB this week, are listening to offers on running back Christian McCaffrey and have Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers coming to town Sunday.
• Does Tom Brady wish he had remained retired? It’s been a struggle both on and off the field for the future Hall of Fame quarterback.
• It’s 3 down, 79 to go for the Carolina Hurricanes to have an undefeated season. Andrei Svechnikov scored twice and Frederik Andersen stopped 22 shots as the Hurricanes routed Seattle 5-1 late Monday. Next up is the high-flying Edmonton Oilers on Thursday. Carolina won its first nine games last season.
TUESDAY’S PICK TO CLICK
Since the game between the Yankees and Guardians was rained out and rescheduled today, we’ll keep Monday’s pick.
MONDAY’S PICK: Let’s go out on a limb. Steven Kwan has three hits and scores twice in helping Cleveland beat the Yankees in Game 5. If the Guardians win, it would mean three of the four teams who received first-round byes would be eliminated and there will be talk about adding an eighth playoff team in each league so no team gets a bye.
TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
• 1977 — Reggie Jackson hits three consecutive home runs, all on the first pitch, to lead the New York Yankees to the World Series championship over Los Angeles in six games.
WHAT TO WATCH TODAY
• SOCCER: Nottingham Forest at Brighton & Hove Albion, 2:30 p.m., USA
• NHL: Philadelphia at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m., ESPN
• NBA: Philadelphia at Boston, 7:30 p.m., TNT
• MLB PLAYOFFS: Philadelphia at San Diego, 8 p.m., FS1
• NHL: Los Angeles at Nashville, 9:30 p.m., ESPN
• NBA: LA Lakers at Golden State, 10 p.m., TNT
Sonny Jones can be reached at wibbyj@gmail.com and follow on Twitter @FOSonnyJones.
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