Ol Roy's Recipe For Darn Good Regular Season Basketball

Brace yourself sports fans because I have some breaking news; North Carolina is good. Allow me to expand on that, North Carolina is really good.

Stats don't lie and with 95.6 points per game, 1.42 point per SHOT, and five players averaging at least 12.5 points a game, it's easy for anyone to see that UNC is a supremely talented team. The crazy thing is, Roy Williams has seen this all before.

Ol' Roy has been mixing together the ingredients for on-court success for over three decades now. The fruits of his labor were first on display at Kansas University and over the years, his secret recipe became apparent.

Spread a large helping of your scoring over two interchangeable frontcourt players, mix in a backcourt that can score, pass and push the tempo, add in a pinch of three-point shooting to stretch the defense, plus a dash of bench depth, simmer over 35 games and viola!

Clearly, this year's version has all the makings with Tyler Hansbrough (22.7 PPG, 7.1 RPG) and Deon Thompson (15.1, 7.1) handling the heavy lifting, Ty Lawson (15.7, 6.6 APG) Danny Green (13.0) and Wayne Ellington (12.5) working the edges and Ed Davis (8.0, 8.4 RPG) adding quality depth.

If you listen to the experts, you may get the feeling that the only drama come March will be to determine which squad earns the right to watch Roy's boys hoist that blue ribbon. Channeling Lee Corso for one moment: NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!

Let's take a trip to the land where the recipe was developed; Kansas. Specifically, Kansas in 2002 and 2003. The names may change but I assure you, the dish will taste very familiar.

In 2002, Roy rolled out a frontcourt of Drew Gooden (19.8 PPG, 11.4 RPG) and Nick Collison (15.6, 8.3), with a three-layer backcourt of Kirk Hinrich (14.8, 5.0 APG), Aaron Miles (6.8 APG) and Jeff Boschee (13.4). Throw in Wayne Simien at (8.1, 5.3) and you have a team that averaged 90.9 points per game, won 33 games, went undefeated in the Big 12, and lost to eventual National Champions Maryland in the final four.

Fast-forward one year and follow the script. Collison (18.5, 10) and Simien (14.8, 8.2) were the main course, Hinrich (17.3, 3.5 APG) Miles (6.4 APG) and Keith Langford (15.9 PPG) formed a nice selection of side dishes with Jeff Graves (6.0, 6.8) and Michael Lee (4.9, 3.3) providing just desserts.

82.7 points per game, 30 wins, and a Big 12 Championship later, this team ran into Syracuse in the National Championship game.

Back to my earth-shattering intro, UNC is really good but they are not uniquely good. Expect a great regular season, plan for a deep run in March but brace yourself for another Iron Chef to emerge come April 6.

Ol' Roy is ready for it. If he's not, he should be. He's been here before.