NCAA basketball: Ranking every national champion this century: Is Baylor the best?

12. North Carolina Tar Heels, 2017

Final Record: 33-7 | Def. Gonzaga 71-65

There was definitely a recipe for bringing a national championship back to Chapel Hill under Roy Williams. In all three title-winning seasons, the Tar Heels won the Maui Invitational, were regular-season ACC champs, saw rival Duke with the ACC Tournament, and had a No. 1-seed in March Madness. But you could the argument that the 2016-17 season was Williams’ most impressive feat.

Make no mistake, the formula for immense success at North Carolina was in place when you look at this roster. The Tar Heels had veteran guard Joel Berry leading the way with two terrific rebounders in Isaiah Hicks and Kennedy Meeks along with long, sharp-shooting wing Justin Jackson and the versatile Theo Pinson on the wings.

North Carolina also made a phenomenal run through the tournament, taking on one extremely tough opponent after another, including winning a classic against a loaded Kentucky team in the Elite Eight and then narrowly taking down Oregon and Gonzaga in the Final Four to win the title.

But the reason this iteration of the Tar Heels is outside the top 10 is that the star power wasn’t there. It was a team that was well-coached and well developed with great college players but, looking back, it wasn’t the most star-studded of champions, especially in comparison to UNC’s other two titles this century.