By AARON BEARD

AP Sports Writer

updated 9:03 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2008

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Wayne Ellington knows what awaits just about every time he goes to a grocery store, a gas station, even while he's playing pool with his North Carolina teammates.

"Somebody shakes your hand and says, 'It's your guys' year, you guys have to do it this year,''' he said. "Everybody's always putting that little whisper in your ear.''

That whisper's quickly becoming a roar. That's what happens as the unanimous No. 1 preseason pick.

Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams kept his top six scorers, including national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough, from a Final Four team that won a school-record 36 games and has added a touted recruiting class — a rare mix in this era of underclassmen leaving for the NBA.

The Tar Heels enter this season as such a heavy favorite to win a fifth NCAA championship that many will regard anything less as a failure.

"I like having a bull's-eye on our back,'' point guard Ty Lawson said. "We're the team to beat, and I love it.''

The Tar Heels faced their first bumps of the season early when it was discovered Thursday that Hansbrough would miss practice indefinitely because of a stress reaction in his right shin. There was no timetable set for his return. In addition, Marcus Ginyard already is out for likely the first few weeks of the season due to foot surgery, robbing the Tar Heels of their top defender.

Few teams enter a season with these expectations. In 1991, UNLV returned Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon from a national championship team and went unbeaten through the regular season before losing to Duke in the Final Four. Former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, like Williams today, said the Runnin' Rebels never talked about the pressure for perfection that grew with each game.

"We had a veteran team,'' Tarkanian said. "We didn't have the depth Carolina has, but I've never cared for that much depth. I think it's too many players, and if you start playing too many that hurts your first group.

"Roy's biggest job will be to keep their heads in every game. There's no question they've got the best talent, and Roy's a great coach. The big thing is they've got to bring it every night. It's very easy to lose your concentration and let up and anything can happen.''

Duke's Mike Krzyzewski has had his share of loaded teams, too. After their upset of UNLV and title-game win over Kansas, the Blue Devils returned the next season with Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill to win consecutive championships. He's also seen two of his best teams - the two-loss 1999 squad that reached the title game and the 2002 team that was upset by Indiana in its bid for a repeat championship - come up short.

"It's always better to be picked to win and better to have a lot of talent than not have a lot of talent,'' Krzyzewski said. "It's nice to have money in the bank and figure out how to spend it instead of figuring out how to make it. But again, that's what makes it interesting.''

Hansbrough, back for his senior year, is the first returning AP national player of the year since LSU's Shaquille O'Neal in 1991. He is on pace to set the school's career scoring and rebounding records along with the ACC's all-time scoring mark.

Ellington, Lawson and top reserve Danny Green all returned to school after entering their names in the NBA draft, while starters Ginyard and Deon Thompson are back.

In addition, the Tar Heels welcome back valuable reserve Bobby Frasor, who can play either guard position, from a knee injury and add a recruiting class featuring McDonald's All-Americans Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller and Larry Drew II.

So what's their weakness? A defense that improved yet often left Williams wanting more, perhaps - though their transition attack that averaged 89 points a game can cover up a lot of mistakes.

"We were 36-3 last year,'' Williams said. "There's not a heck of a lot of glaring weaknesses out there, I don't think.''

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