The team played its home games in the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Tyler Hansbrough, the Atlantic Coast Conference all-time leading scorer, was selected in the lottery of the 2009 NBA draft, going #13 to the Indiana Pacers.

Top returnees are senior center Deon Thompson, who spent the Summer helping lead Team USA to a bronze at the World University Games[1] and sophomore Ed Davis, who had got projected as a first-round draft pick.

Reserve sophomores Larry Drew II and Tyler Zeller also return, and junior swingman Will Graves was reinstated over the Summer after a mid-season suspension by coach Roy Williams.

Also returning is defensive stopper Marcus Ginyard, who took a medical redshirt for the 2008–09 campaign after starting as a junior for the 2007–08 Tar Heel team, who advanced to the Final Four.

The Tar Heels were also picked as the ACC pre-season favorite (with rival Duke) by the conference media, while Davis was chosen a member of the preseason All-ACC Team.

[6] UNC kicked off their 100th season with an alumni game on September 4, featuring such NBA players as Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Marvin Williams.

At halftime of the event, the 2009 National Championship banner got unveiled, and UNC legend Michael Jordan got honored for his election to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

In their season opener against Florida International, the Tar Heels donned throwback uniforms in the style of the 1957 undefeated national championship team – with distinctive red trim.

Coach Roy Williams signed a five-person class for 2009, including two-time Tennessee Division II-AA Mr. Basketball Leslie McDonald from Memphis, identical twins David and Travis Wear from California, and athletic combo guard Dexter Strickland from New Jersey.

There had been some controversy surrounding the game as FIU had threatened to pull out of the tournament when the brackets were released, and they found that they were not scheduled to play Ohio State as they had initially planned.

[10] After home wins over North Carolina Central and Valparaiso, the Tar Heels began a tough out of conference slate which would include five teams ranked in the preseason Coaches' poll.

UNC had a two-point lead at the half, but the Orange used a 25–3 run coming out of the locker room to defeat the young Tar Heels convincingly behind 25 points from forwarding Wesley Johnson.

The game also featured a record-setting night as Gardner-Webb guard Grayson Flittner tied a Dean Smith Center record with nine three-pointers.

The Tar Heels fell behind early as UK freshman John Wall sparked a 28–2 first-half run that punctuated a 15-point halftime deficit.

The Tar Heels returned injured starters, Will Graves and Marcus Ginyard, while the Hokies welcomed back their star Malcolm Delaney.

The Tar Heels briefly showed signs of life in the first half of the ACC tournament against Georgia Tech gaining an early lead, but a second-half swoon resulted in a 62–58 loss.