The Tar Heels began the season ranked atop both major polls, and stayed there for the first two months of the season despite closer-than-expected games against
Davidson and
Clemson. They suffered their first loss of the season against
Maryland on January 19. Three games later, point guard
Ty Lawson twisted his ankle and missed most of February. Despite this, the Tar Heels didn't miss a beat, going 8–1 the rest of the way. They regained the top spot in the polls in late February and held it for the rest of the season. They clinched their 26th ACC regular season title by avenging their earlier loss to Duke in the last game of the season. In the ACC Tournament held in
Charlotte, the top-seeded Tar Heels defeated
Florida State,
Virginia Tech and Clemson to win their 17th conference tournament title. In so doing, they went into the NCAA Tournament with a 32–2 record—the most wins going into the tourney in school history. In the NCAA Tournament, the Tar Heels were seeded first in the East Regional, and were also the overall top seed in the tournament. They routed
Mount St. Mary's and
Arkansas while playing just 30 minutes from campus at the
RBC Center in
Raleigh. They were no less dominant in the regional phase in Charlotte, scoring convincing wins over
Washington State and
Louisville to make their 17th trip to the Final Four, but in their national semifinal game, they lost to
Kansas, who went on to win the national championship. Remarkably, the Tar Heels made the Final Four while not having to leave the state of North Carolina for a little over a month (a total of 10 games), and while notching two losses at the Smith Center—an arena where they have traditionally been all but unbeatable. They also set a school record for wins in a season, with 36. With
Memphis having its 38-win
2007–08 season vacated by the NCAA, the 2007–08 Tar Heels' 36 wins are now the second-most in Division I history. ==Team players drafted into the NBA==