Personally I think it might be a good idea to let R J have some more time off to rest his back and more importantly this will be a good opportunity for the coaches to watch and evaluate what other players can do in his absence….

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—A pair of ACC Players of the Year and All-Americas will serve as color analysts this season for the Tar Heel Sports Network beginning with Tuesday night's charity exhibition game in Memphis.

Last season, former Tar Heel men's basketball alumni Pete Chilcutt, Marcus Ginyard, Tyler Hansbrough and Tyler Zeller rotated as analysts throughout the season for longtime analyst Eric Montross, who initially was sidelined before ultimately passing away due from cancer in December.

This season, Zeller and Hansbrough will continue in that role, joining play-by-play voice Jones Angell for the radio broadcasts.

"You don't replace Eric Montross, but you try to honor him and the first-class manner in which he represented Carolina," says Chuck Schroeder, Vice President and General Manager of Tar Heel Sports Properties, "and the four of them did that all season. We can't thank them enough.

"This season, we'll go forward with Tyler Zeller and Tyler Hansbrough sharing these duties and joining Jones and our entire broadcast crew as we bring what promises to be another exciting season of Carolina Basketball to our fans listening all over the globe."

Hansbrough played for UNC from 2005-09, when he set the all-time ACC scoring record, was the 2008 ACC and National Player of the Year, a four-time first-team All-America and led Carolina to the 2009 national championship. He was inducted in the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.

Zeller played for the Tar Heels from 2008-12. He also was an NCAA champion in 2009 and was the ACC Player of the Year in 2012. That was one of two seasons in which he earned All-America honors. He also was the ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year twice and was the National Academic All-America of the Year in 2012.

Here is the ACC hierarchy based on the national rankings.

2) Duke
14) North Carolina
24) Clemson
38) Pitt
44) Wake Forest
52) N.C. State
55) Miami
64) Louisville
68) Syracuse
69) Notre Dame
70) Georgia Tech
74) SMU
78) Virginia
90) Florida State
92) Virginia Tech
99) Stanford
113) Boston College
135) Cal

And is this going to be televised?

I just noticed that Pomeroy finally has his 2025 list up. We usually mock his predictions this early, but I noticed last year that he's really no worse than the usual suspects, but offers fans the advantage that he ranks ALL teams, not just the ones at the top.

Pomeroy has us #2 in our conference and #14 overall with Memphis #1 in theirs and #43 overall. Unfortunately he doesn't list rosters until they actually play, so we'll have to go elsewhere for player-to-player comparisons.