With six Elite 8 appearances, including two national championship game showings, in the past nine seasons, there aren't many programs that have had better success as of late than North Carolina.
Despite that on-court success, the Tar Heels have struggled recently to land top recruits in the era of the "one-and-done" player, but it hasn't been for lack of effort, according to their head coach.
Roy Williams says he doggedly pursued players projected to spend just one year in college before heading to the NBA, including a bunch that ended up just down the road at Duke in Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum, Marques Bolden, Luke Kennard, and Brandon Ingram.
"All the guys that they've got, we tried to recruit also," Williams told Andrew Carter of The News Observer. "I mean, there's no question about that. We've been in a time period here where it's been difficult for us to get the top-10, top-20 recruit. There's no question about that."
The legendary coach feels the main reason it's been a struggle for the Tar Heels to land top talent is an ongoing NCAA investigation into academic misconduct. The inquiry is now in its third year, but had been rumored to happen well before that. Coincidentally, the last top-five recruit North Carolina signed was Harrison Barnes in 2010.
"When the junk started," Williams said. "Since then, it's been a lot of negative recruiting and a lot of questions out there. And it's been harder for us to get those kinds of kids. And I'm not against them. I mean, we've had Marvin Williams and Brandan Wright. I would love to have those guys again today."
As Carter noted, since Barnes signed, the Tar Heels have offered scholarships to 11 top-five recruits, and all of them have gone elsewhere.
Williams has landed players ranked just outside the top five that likely won't be leaving after one year. The 2014 class that saw him land Justin Jackson, Theo Pinson, and Joel Berry is a perfect example. While those three weren't listed in the top five, they were all ranked as top-20 recruits, but none projected as one-and-done players.
Jackson and Berry are the Tar Heels' leading scorers as juniors this season, while Pinson has battled injuries throughout the campaign, but has shone when healthy.
When the latest edition of the bitter rivalry between North Carolina and Duke tips off Thursday, it will largely be a battle of upperclassmen against underclassmen, with the Tar Heels entering the game ranked 10 spots ahead of their rival.
Despite the fact he's not landing the top recruits, Williams has kept the Tar Heels among the top programs in the country, but that will get increasingly tough if his recruiting classes continue to drop down the rankings.