Experience often wins out in this era of college basketball.
Between the transfer portal allowing prominent programs to fill out their rosters with older players rather than freshmen and the NCAA's "COVID year" of eligibility still lingering for many, the sport has grown older in the 2020s.
Gone are the days of majority-freshman starting lineups winning national championships. That's what Kentucky was able to do in 2012 and Duke did in 2015, but the closest example this season, Kentucky, which regularly started at least three freshmen, battled defensive issues all year and flamed put in the first round.
Hubert Davis has quickly figured out that relying on talented freshmen isn't the best way to compete for a national championship. Despite the Tar Heels bringing in promising young players in addition to the returns of Armando Bacot and R.J. Davis, the third-year coach hit the transfer portal aggressively to fill out his roster. To this point, it's paid off.
Here's a closer look at the average age of North Carolina's starting five and how it compares to the NBA's youngest team.
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North Carolina roster age
North Carolina's starting five has an average age of 22.2. The average age of the Tar Heels' rotation, which has been operating with eight players before and during the NCAA Tournament, is slightly lower at 21.8.
At 22.2 years old, UNC's average age is only slightly lower than that of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder, who sit just behind the Nuggets near the top of the Western Conference. The Thunder starting lineup has an average age of 22.6, with only one player — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — older than Tar Heels sharpshooter Cormac Ryan.
North Carolina earned a No. 1 seed and rolled to the Sweet 16, so Davis' decision to put together a more mature group after last season's disappointment is already a success. Now, the quest is to win a national championship with Bacot and Davis leading the way.
North Carolina starting five
- Armando Bacot, F, 24
- R.J. Davis, G, 22
- Harrison Ingram, F, 21
- Cormac Ryan, G, 25
- Elliot Cadeau, G, 19
Despite its advanced age, North Carolina's starting five actually does include a freshman. Elliot Cadeau, 19, is the only starter under 21, with Stanford transfer Harrison Ingram the next-youngest starter at 21.
Bacot and Ryan are both graduate students, so they raise the average age of the group considerably on their own. Ryan, who was born in 1998, started college in 2018 but is still eligible because he redshirted in 2019-20 and earned a COVID year of extra eligibility.
MORE: Ranking each Sweet 16 team's chances to win title
Oldest college basketball rosters
While it's tough to gauge which college basketball roster is the oldest because so many players on each roster don't actually see the floor, ESPN's Jeff Borzello ranked the oldest rosters entering the season while weighing the figure based on which players would see the most minutes.
North Carolina ranked as the ninth-oldest at 22.1. Notably, 12 of the 14 oldest rosters reached the NCAA Tournament. The only two that didn't, Villanova and Arkansas, actually ranked first- and second-oldest, respectively. Six of the 14 oldest teams reached the Sweet 16.
Despite disappointments by Villanova and Arkansas, results tend to favor the most experienced rosters. That's one advantage North Carolina could have as the NCAA Tournament field gets thinner.
