University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels are No. 3 in Preseason Coaches' Poll
October 29, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 29, 2004
Chapel Hill -- The University of North Carolina men's basketball team is ranked No. 3 in the preseason ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll, released on Thursday evening.
The Tar Heels are one of three Atlantic Coast Conference teams in the top five nationally, joining No. 2 Wake Forest and No. 4 Georgia Tech. There are three other ACC teams in the top 20 -- No. 12 Duke, No. 16 Maryland and No. 19 NC State.
Kansas is ranked No. 1, followed by the three ACC teams and No. 5 Illinois. The rest of the top 10 is No. 6 Syracuse, No. 7 Connecticut, No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 10 Michigan State.
The No. 3 preseason ranking is Carolina's highest in the coaches' poll since the 1997-98 campaign, when the Tar Heels were No. 2 the preseason coaches poll and featured national player of the year Antawn Jamison and All-America Vince Carter, as well as seniors Shammond Williams and Makhtar Ndiaye, junior Ademola Okulaja and sophomore Ed Cota. That squad reached the 1998 NCAA Final Four.
The last time Carolina was ranked higher than third in the preseason coaches poll was 1994-95, when the Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse-led Tar Heels were No. 2 in the preseason and reached the NCAA Final Four.
