North Carolina doesn't need a whole lot of motivation to chase its dream of winning a national championship this basketball season.
The Tar Heels will open Nov. 11 versus Michigan State as the unanimous No. 1 team in the nation and are loaded to make a run at the program's third crown in seven years. They lost in the East Regional final to Kentucky a year ago, and know that, had they advanced to the Final Four, they, not eventual champion Connecticut, would have been the heavy favorites to win it all.
So UNC's players look at this year as their title to win. But this isn't something that simply comes from within.
With the NBA on lockout, plenty of wealthy former Tar Heels have been hanging around campus playing pickup games like they do every summer, but their stay has been longer. And the talk among the formers and the currents has been about titles, hanging another banner in the Dean Smith Center.
"They let you know you have to play and that you're going to have a slump where you're not playing your best, but you have to just fight through that," said junior forward John Henson on Thursday during UNC's basketball media day.
"Jackie Manuel (2005 NCAA title team) is always around us, and he gives us advice about the things that he did and they did. They had some tough times like we did and they ended up winning it all."
The regular-season ACC champion last season, Carolina returns its entire starting lineup, sort of like it did in 2009, though Marcus Ginyard's injury opened the door for sixth man Danny Green to start. Green didn't start the previous season but often got starter's minutes.
The Tar Heels are aware of what the preseason magazines are saying and the pressure that comes with being the favorite. How could they escape it, given the parade of back-slapping going on as the players walk in between classes on campus? The Heels understand, however, there's a danger in thinking too much about early April when it's still six months away.
"I don't think it's good for us to focus on that," said junior guard Dexter Strickland. "I think we should play each and every game like it's our last and give it our all."
Wearing the nation's largest target is a reality, though. Having future NBA first-round picks such as Harrison Barnes, Tyler Zeller and Henson doing their thing, along with sophomore point guard Kendall Marshall, a possible future first-round pick, and a talented bench that also include some eventual NBAers lends reason for a great deal of optimism. So much that the former players have been calling out the current ones, telling them to go get their own, make their own history.
The result of playing extra pickup games against the vets and just hanging around them, talking about what it takes to cut down the nets has added a layer of maturity to a group that grew up exponentially over the course of last season.
"That just comes from playing together all the time and constantly hanging out with the team," Strickland said about increased maturity that was quite evident Thursday. "We're not just teammates, we're brothers… And we are playing for something special.
"The guys that come back challenge us, we learn from them because they've done it before. And I just think that knowledge helps mature us, too."
Two current Carolina players can identify with Tyler Hansbrough, Raymond Felton and other Heels with rings. Senior forward Justin Watts and senior center Zeller were on the 2009 title team and are looking to become the first UNC players in the program's fabled history to win two national championship rings.
"That would be very, very rewarding," Zeller said. "But at the same time, I was a very small part of the one my freshman year and it's one of those thing where I want to get my own and be a larger part of a national championship team."
That's the attitude of the Tar Heels.
They are confident but not cocky. They strongly believe, but aren't arrogant. And they know they have the pieces to make it happen, but aren't flaunting it. They also know none of that means anything unless they take care of business.
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