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CHAPEL HILL -- And so there was great angst about the town as North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough sat on the bench the other day, hindered by a stress reaction in his right shin. Some dispatches said he had "missed his first game as a Tar Heel," conveniently omitting the fact that the contest was a meaningless exhibition.

Sure, the All-American, player of the year and potential ACC scoring champion is on the shelf, and there's a chance he may not be in uniform when the Tar Heels begin their season today against Penn (4, Fox Sports Carolinas). Lest anyone think the stock market is crashing again, consider this: The Heels could still win an NCAA title if Hansbrough never played a minute.

If you think that sounds like hyperbole, stop for a second. What if Hansbrough had gone pro after last season and everybody else had returned? Would Carolina have suddenly fallen out of the public consciousness?

Let's see. They'd have seven high school All-Americans instead of eight, four returning starters instead of five and one acclaimed big man named Tyler instead of two.

Just a hunch: In the diluted game that is college basketball, UNC would still be a Final Four pick by many.

The Heels also begin the season without their best defender, Marcus Ginyard, who is out until the middle of December with a stress fracture. But again there is a cause for pause. The Heels won't play their first ACC game until Jan. 4. UNC might be without guard Bobby Frasor today. Frasor turned an ankle earlier this week.

There really shouldn't be much stress on the mind, even if there is some on the lower extremities of some important players.

Coach Roy Williams is dealing from a position of strength. The Carolina basketball brand is as powerful as any in college sports, which makes the program one of the few that can attract the next starting five while the current group elects to buck convention and stick around.

If not for the Florida Gators returning en masse following their 2006 NCAA title, this group of Heels would have had the most firepower of any college team since the 1991-92 Duke Blue Devils. And they still may.

Wayne Ellington's a 40 percent 3-point shooter whose backup, Larry Drew II, won the long-distance exhibition at the McDonald's All-America game this past spring. Drew is one of two Heels whose fathers played in the NBA. The other is Ed Davis, who will be an understudy to 245-pound forward Deon Thompson.

Ty Lawson had 165 assists while missing seven games a season ago, and it's easy to forget his backup, Frasor, has that McDonald's thing on his resume, too. Frasor missed most of last season with a knee injury and might miss today's game. He did practice Friday.

So Ginyard, one of the three scholarship players who didn't have "All-American" beside his name in high school, is out for now. Williams gets to replace him with Danny Green, who averaged 11 points in 22 minutes a game last season and, like Ellington and Lawson, had a brief dalliance with the NBA draft.

Destined to be Bob Weir to Hansbrough's Jerry Garcia for one season, 7-footer Tyler Zeller will get his chances, too.

The least honored of the 11 scholarship players on the roster may be Dudley High alumnus William Graves, and he still was ranked as the 79th best player nationally in the Class of 2006.

The injuries have temporarily quelled talk about whether Carolina can become the first Division I champion to finish a season undefeated since the Indiana Hoosiers in 1975-76. Those Hoosiers were 32-0, and these Heels would have to go 39-0, which means it's a long shot under any circumstances.

And it's not all that important. Unless there's an epidemic that presses the five -- yeah, five -- walk-ons or former walk-ons into extended service, the Tar Heels will start their NCAA tournament run at the Greensboro Coliseum, an assignment that should mitigate any early jitters.

Nothing is certain or sacred. The NCAA tournament is a one-and-done deal, and as the Heels know as well as anyone in recent memory (think the Kansas game last April), one really bad stretch in one game can torch title hopes.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob. daniels@news-record.com