It's North Carolina Against The World

College basketball gets underway sooner than you expect, so it's probably time to roll out our 341-day team-by-team preview of the forthcoming season. But then we woke up this morning and realized there's no point to that. In fact, there's no point to even having a season at all, because the titles, the trophies, and every shining moment between now and March belongs to the unstoppable basketball juggernaut known as the North Carolina Tar Heels. UNC is the first unanimous preseason No. 1 in the history of the AP poll. (Which as you all know is never wrong. Last year's preseason poll accurately predicted the Final Four teams.) They return all five starters, the top six scorers, and the player of the year Tyler Hansbrough, who is also a unanimous preseason All-American. The non-conference schedule presents few roadblocks, a rebuilding ACC is prepared to lay down for them, and all signs point to Roy Williams finally winning a title that's completely his. They're so good, they don't even play exhibition games—they practice against other Division I teams, and they win presumably, because how could they not? (This is thanks to another phantom NCAA rule that's no one knows about or understands.) So congratulations to your 2009 NCAA Champions! It's was a great year, wasn't it? I’ll never figure out the NCAA [The Vig] Preseason AP Poll + Preseason All-Americans [Yahoo]