RALEIGH, N.C. — Of all the innumerable changes that have reshaped college athletics during the past several years there is at least one constant that continues to endure: In the Triangle and throughout North Carolina’s Great Beyond, basketball rules.

It has. It does. It will.

Sure, that other major college sport generates all the headlines and attention these days. And yes, it’s true: Football, with its command of television money and ratings, has become the most important component of the multi-billion-dollar economic engine that drives college athletics.

A couple of competing facts can be true at once, though. Football makes a lot of money, and is important. But college basketball, throughout North Carolina, remains more important — despite the sport’s gradual decline in the national sporting consciousness. Indeed, throughout most of the country, college basketball outside of the diehards has become a one month kind of phenomenon.

People tune in during the postseason. They fall in love all over again with the buzzer beaters and upsets and Cinderallas and the endless drama of March (and early April). They’re reminded, as they are every year, that pretty much nothing in sports beats (or can really compete with) with allure of the NCAA Tournament. Facts are facts.

Around here, though, nobody needs reminding. No, college basketball might not be as popular or compelling as it was during its 1970s or 80s or 90s heyday — here, or anywhere — but it’s hardly just a one-month pastime in North Carolina. In North Carolina, it remains part religion or maybe part cult. It determines tribal affiliation.

DJ Burns became a national sensation for four weeks last spring, this out-of-nowhere folk hero who burst onto the scene and, almost overnight, became part of the mythology of March. Except, for anyone around here, he didn’t come out of nowhere. He was a known commodity, even if he and his former N.C. State teammates needed a while (OK, a long while), and a bit of a miracle, to figure it all out.

As the calendar turns from late October to early November, a good portion of the rest of the country remains entranced by that other sport, which only recently figured out that expanding its playoff and allowing dreamers to dream — allowing for hope, really — was actually a good thing. (And yet college football continues its war on the little guy, despite the expanded playoff.) Meanwhile, the NCAA Tournament has included at least 64 teams for almost 40 years now.

Part of the beauty of college basketball is that every Division I team starts every season with a chance. A slim chance, yes, for a number of those teams — but a chance, still, that maybe, maybe, fate will smile kindly. That they, too, might create their own March miracle. That’s only part of why college basketball is part of our identity, that hope and these enduring loyalties to certain shades of blue, or one shade of red.

Another reason, as if it even needs to be said: North Carolina’s place in the sport is unrivaled.

While schools here continue an endlessly frustrating and fruitless pursuit of sustained competitiveness (and merely competence, at times) in football, they prove themselves over and over and over again in basketball. You could argue, successfully, that Triangle teams over the past few seasons have created more memorable basketball moments than they have throughout their combined 300-plus year histories in that other sport.

Think about it: North Carolina’s unlikely run to the Final Four in 2022, where it ended Mike Krzyzewski’s career. Duke’s ACC tournament championship in Jon Scheyer’s first season in 2023. N.C. State’s insane, mind-bending run to the Final Four last spring, which was preceded by its equally dramatic ACC tournament championship game victory against North Carolina, which was preceded by Michael O’Connell’s answered prayer against Virginia.

And all the while, too, the Triangle has become the nation’s premier hotbed of women’s college basketball, as well, with State and Duke entering this season among the favorites to win the ACC and UNC not too far behind. The Wolfpack women have set the standard, locally, and State last spring became the first school since 2017 (and 11th, overall) with teams in the men’s and women’s Final Four in the same year.

In football, meanwhile, the last time any Triangle team won a major bowl game was in 1960. The last time Carolina, Duke or State won the ACC was in 1989, when the Blue Devils finished in a tie for first place. The last time any of those schools entered the final weeks of a season with a viable chance at a national championship was, well ... never.

And that’s not changing now.

Let’s be real: N.C. State and UNC have been looking forward to basketball season for a while. And at Duke, which is in the midst of an admirable football season, is it a stretch to say that there was more interest last weekend in the Blue Devils’ exhibition in men’s basketball than in their football game (and one-point overtime loss) against SMU? Probably not.

Perhaps there may come a time when football takes over here the way it has almost everywhere. But that time is not now, and it does not appear to be coming any time soon. In a figurative sense, it’s pretty much always basketball season in the Triangle. And now, in a literal sense, it really is. Finally.

And what a season it should be.

Duke and North Carolina both enter the season in the top 10 — as they usually do — and with viable Final Four and national championship hopes. N.C. State enters the season as — and this still takes some getting used to saying — the defending ACC champions. There are stars new (hello, Cooper Flagg) and old (welcome back, RJ Davis). And, as always, there’s that one immutable truth:

College basketball matters here more than it does pretty much anywhere.

With that, the storylines that are likely to shape the season:

1. The floor is yours, Cooper Flagg.

This might at times be a miserable college basketball season for anyone who:

A. Believes Duke receives way too much media hype, every year.

B. Believes Duke players — especially Duke players of a certain kind — receive way too much media hype, every year.

There’s also bound to be some shorter-term misery — a night or two, or maybe three (or four?) — for any coach or team trying to stop Cooper Flagg, the Blue Devils’ 6-foot-9, do-everything freshman who is the most hyped player to enter college basketball since ... when, exactly? Maybe Anthony Davis? Maybe Kevin Durant? Maybe, going back more than 20 years, Carmelo Anthony?

The immediate comparison, in terms of media frenzy, is obvious enough, and also played at Duke. But as coveted a high school prospect as Zion Williamson was, remember, the attention surrounding him really took off only after he arrived at Duke and had played a few games. He delivered some amazing early highlights. The ESPN narrative machine took off. The rest is history.

Zion — a one-name-only star, like a college basketball version of Madonna, or Tiger — remains without question the sport’s most hyped player over the past five to 10 years. A casual college basketball fan might have trouble naming even a player off of Connecticut’s national championship team last April, but there’s a good chance they remember a Zion dunk, or that night his shoe broke at Cameron Indoor Stadium against UNC, with Barack Obama sitting courtside.

And now here comes Flagg, who is also the kind of talent who is likely to draw celebrities (and maybe, who knows, even Obama) back to Cameron this season. But here’s the difference, as of now, between Zion and Flagg: Zion needed time, at least a little bit of it, for the media machine to build around him. Flagg hasn’t even played a real college game yet, and that machine is already humming.

Given the state of media, and especially of the converging forces of social media and video and the rise of branding among athletes, it’s not a stretch to suggest that Flagg is the most hyped freshman college basketball player ever. Not the best, mind you, though maybe he stakes a claim at that, too. But certainly he’s arguably the most publicized and built-up and anticipated freshman, ever.

And now we get to see whether Flagg lives up to it all. Good luck, kid. The expectations are enormous. Anything less than a first-team All-ACC and All-American season will be viewed as a disappointment. Anything less than a Final Four appearance will likely be viewed as a failure — fair or not. And the takes that pervade social media? They’re sure to be rational and nuanced, right?

Let’s be clear that Flagg is deserving of the attention, if it’s to exist. It’s not his fault he has come of age during the most insane media environment in world history. He indeed has the skills, and then some. He’s the consensus projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft for good reason.

The highlights last summer of him, at 17-years-old, holding his own in a scrimmage with the U.S. Olympic team felt like the sort of thing we’ll one day be watching in Cooper Flagg documentaries about his rise to fame and basketball glory.

But also, yes, part of the hype is the result of a media environment that only becomes more unhinged and limitless by the day. While there have perhaps been better prospects to enter college basketball over the years, none of them came up in this particular era of Tik-Toks and endless sports content on social media and bloggers upon bloggers and sites upon sites feeding the beast.

It’s going to be ... a lot. A circus. A drama. A teenager trying to lead Duke to its first Post-K national championship. And if Flagg even comes close to living up to it all, well, just be prepared for the onslaught of coverage and noise that will persist.

If you’re a Duke fan, you’re going to love it. If you’re a rational college basketball fan and enjoyer of watching great athletes, you’re going to appreciate it. If you’re a fan of a rival school or a general hater of Duke, you’re going to get sick of it — and quickly. And if you’re a UNC fan, you’re going to need to never watch ESPN, and you might as well just go ahead and mute the words “Cooper” and “Flagg” on all of your social media channels. Keep some anti-nausea pills handy, too, just in case.

Flagg is going to be everywhere this season. He’ll most likely be very, very good, too. Prepare yourselves accordingly.

2. And for an encore, RJ Davis?

If everything above about Flagg seemed like too much; like someone who has yet to play his first college game can’t possibly be generating so much attention and anticipation, consider this: There’s so much hype around Flagg’s arrival at Duke that it’s overshadowing RJ Davis’ return to UNC.

That might not be “right.” It might not be fair. It might not be deserved.

But it’s true. In any other year, the return of the ACC Player of the Year, and especially the return of the ACC Player of the Year to North Carolina, where he has a shot of becoming the Tar Heels’ all-time leading scorer, would be The Story entering a new season.

This, though, isn’t any other year — and so, somehow, the most proven college basketball player in the country will enter the season in the media-created (guilty, as charged) shadow of a freshman yet to accumulate his first real stats. At least Davis has to understand better than most — better than anyone, really — that he plays a cruel game, one that’s not always fair.

In his perfect world, he’d undoubtedly be off to the NBA. He was without question the Tar Heels’ best player a season ago and has arguably been their best player for four years running. And for all college basketball’s faults these days and the reality that, no, the game really isn’t all that close to what it was at its peak, at least there’s this:

It has allowed for one more season of RJ Davis at UNC. It has allowed for college basketball to mature. For great college players to stick around.

Davis is a great and throwback college player and, indeed, the kind who likely would’ve left school early in the not-so-distant past, before players earned the overdue right to make NIL money. In that time, he might’ve stayed at UNC for two or three seasons before the pursuit of a professional career. And even if it didn’t work out in the NBA, a comfortable and lucrative life in Europe (or elsewhere overseas) awaited.

The lure of NIL money, combined with a love of UNC, compelled Davis’ old teammate, Armando Bacot, to stick around in college for five years. And now Davis enters his fifth season, too — part of the final class of college athletes who received an additional year of eligibility during the pandemic.

By now, Davis is a known commodity. He’s going to provide high-volume and efficient scoring. He’s going to lead by example. He’s going to do a lot of good things, too, that aren’t necessarily clearly defined by a box score, whether that’s through intangible toughness or defensive intensity or any number of contributions that have made him the player he has been.

But there are some unknowns here, too, because this is a UNC team unlike any Davis has been a part of. Bacot is gone, for one. Elliot Cadeau should, the hope goes, take a significant step forward in his second season as point guard. Seth Trimble has looked fantastic in the preseason, which could alleviate some of the pressure from Davis to score and make plays.

Cade Tyson is expected to provide another scoring option from the perimeter. Drake Powell and Ian Jackson, meanwhile, are both probably UNC’s most anticipated and impact freshmen since Davis and Caleb Love entered college back in 2020. And then there’s the fact that this is all different for Davis, too.

If UNC had gone on to win a national championship a season ago, he likely would’ve been a lot more compelled to leave — even with shaky NBA draft prospects, given his size (6-feet, and a sturdy but relatively small 180 pounds). But then came the Sweet 16 defeat against Alabama in Los Angeles, where Davis and Bacot walked out of the arena together, toward the bus.

Bacot’s college eligibility expired at last that night, and Davis might’ve been OK to leave, too, if he’d considered his mission complete. He didn’t, though. The loss against Alabama left a sour taste, especially given the circumstances. The Tar Heels lost that game by two points while Davis missed all nine of his 3-point attempts — the only time all season he didn’t make at least one.

It was the sort of off night, at the worst possible time, that’s bound to linger. The good news, for Davis? He should have more help this season, especially in the backcourt. Bacot’s departure leaves a gaping hole, one that UNC had trouble addressing in the off-season, but a better complement of guards and wing players might just free things up for Davis, and also preserve him for March.

He enters his final college season with the fifth-most points (2,088) in program history and, barring injury, figures to leave school in at least second place on that list. Tyler Hansbrough’s record of 2,872 is within reach, too. Davis would have to average 22.4 points over 35 games to surpass it. That’s feasible, but might not be necessary. Davis could score less than he did a year ago and still prove to have a better season.

In Flagg and Davis, the ACC is home to the nation’s most anticipated college basketball newcomer and its best returning player. And Duke and UNC supporters can agree on this one thing: they should both be appreciated while they’re still in school. This season, like they all do, will go by fast.

3. Where does the Wolfpack go from here?

Regardless of what happens between now and late on the evening of March 15, 2025, the Wolfpack can say this: “We are the reigning ACC tournament champions.” The reality of that is almost still settling in, more than seven months later — that that happened. That N.C. State, which hadn’t won an ACC men’s basketball tournament since 1987, finally ended decades most filled with pain and suffering to win one again.

That it won it like that — with a mad, crazy five-victories-in-five-days run through Washington, D.C.; a run that included a wild overtime victory against Virginia followed by an immensely satisfying (for the Wolfpack) triumph against UNC. It could have all ended there, and it would have been N.C. State’s most magical men’s basketball achievement in decades.

But then came a similarly dazzling and dizzying run through the NCAA Tournament and to the Final Four, with an Elite Eight dispatching of Duke the highlight among endless highlights. Contrary to what rival fans might’ve thought, the Wolfpack didn’t sell its entire program in some twisted deal with the devil for all that transpired last March.

Indeed, State men’s basketball persists. But how does the program build on what it did last spring?

And can it, or is that run destined to be a one-off — a magical, unforgettable one-off but a one-off, nonetheless? What N.C. State did last March defied all expectations and any rational thought. It came out of nowhere. The Wolfpack’s season appeared over, and perhaps Kevin Keatts’ head coaching tenure along with it, and then, bam: a rally against Louisville.

An easy win against Syracuse. An upset of Duke. And the Wolfpack was off.

Keatts proved last March that, at any given time and regardless of even the most dire of circumstances, he’s capable of motivating and coaching a team to greatness. The challenge now is turning those magical few weeks into sustained, consistent success — no easy task in this environment of endless transfers and roster reconfiguration.

The DJs are gone — both Burns and Horne — and they were so instrumental to that run. By the end of last season, they really were among the most potent guard/big man combos in the country, and few duos were playing with more confidence, or having more fun. What they provided, especially last March, seems irreplaceable though there are some enviable pieces.

O’Connell, for one, is back, and he’ll have to provide the same sort of mojo for this team as whatever it was that propelled that shot of his to fall late against Virginia in the ACC Tournament semifinals. Jayden Taylor, who also sparked State’s magic, is also back and along with O’Connell gives State an experienced, good backcourt.

But there’s a lot of new for State, as there is for most teams throughout the sport. How does it all come together? Can Dontrez Styles, the former UNC forward via Georgetown, take the next step and prove he’s more than just a role player? Can the two transfers from Louisville, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Mike James, learn what it takes to win?

In a fair and just world, Keatts would have an extended grace period after all that transpired last March. And he likely will — so long as the Wolfpack remains competitive, and in the NCAA Tournament picture. But Keatts can ask Hubert Davis about how long good will lasts. Davis’ 2022 UNC team beat Coach K in his final home game and then ended his career in the Final Four.

And none of that mattered all that much the next season, when Tar Heels fans were irate with UNC’s underperformance. No, the expectations aren’t quite as insane in Raleigh (emphasis on “quite”). Still — the most important goal for Keatts and State this season is to prove that the end of last season was the beginning of something, and not merely a magical end.

4. The ACC can’t get no respect — or will it, finally?

For a long time, ACC men’s basketball operated within a higher plane, one in which pretty much everyone agreed upon its excellence and place as college basketball’s premier conference. Sure, the conference had its haters the way the Yankees have their haters, or Tom Brady’s Patriots or, well — the way Duke has long had its haters.

Consistent winning begets envy and nit-picking and attempts to tear down and the ACC won. A lot.

More recently, though, the conference has been paying it all back. The league’s middle has been mediocre (or worse) and its bottom has been bad and the bill for all those years of dominance has come due. And the ACC has been paying up and paying up, through the cost of low-hanging-fruit admonition among the TV analysts and the lack of at-large NCAA Tournament bids.

Like a lot of leagues the ACC sold its soul, almost literally, to chase the alleged spoils of football. It makes sense in the nonsensical, no-leadership world of college sports but doesn’t make much sense in any other world for the ACC to have deprioritized its best sport — its most culturally significant sport — in favor of one that just hasn’t mattered as much outside of a few of its campuses.

As the conference has struggled relative to its storied past in recent seasons, the vultures have circled. The ACC has become something of a punching bag. Brett Yormark, the commissioner of the Big 12, has taken every opportunity to sell that league as the nation’s best in men’s basketball. Even the Big Ten, which hasn’t won a national title in the sport since 2000, has been chatty.

Keep in mind that pretty much every other conference would gladly trade its postseason results for what the ACC has done over the past few years, even during this alleged downturn. N.C. State reached the Final Four last March. Miami did it the season before that. Both UNC and Duke did it the season before that.

Nine ACC teams have reached the Sweet 16 over the past three seasons — a strong accomplishment for any league but especially one that has only had five NCAA Tournament teams in each of the past three seasons. The lack of tournament representation has remained the ACC’s biggest complaint over the past few years.

Four at-large bids might’ve been acceptable, if not still a bit disappointing, back when it was a 12-team conference. As a 15-team conference, though, it was insulting. And now the ACC is 18 schools strong, and further diluted by its football- and TV-focused expansion into Dallas and the West.

So desperate is the ACC to change the narrative that the conference invited one of those narrative-setters, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, to its spring meetings last May. Lunardi’s invitation and presence did not necessarily please all of those coaches in attendance. Nonetheless, the so-called bracketologist who has spent an untold amount of time devaluing the ACC advised coaches and league administrators on ways it could enhance its product, and therefore its marketability.

It’s not all that complicated: the league needs to perform well out of conference, in November and December. And, almost equally important, it has to put an end to the trend of truly terrible teams taking up space at the bottom. Louisville, for instance, has single-handedly dragged down the metrics of the entire league over the past couple of seasons.

Now at 18 teams, it would be embarrassing, indeed, if only five of them made the tournament — again — in March. But also, the three schools the ACC added do little to nothing to enhance the conference’s standing in men’s basketball. To the contrary, Cal, SMU and Stanford, at least in their current condition, are only likely to muddle the league’s already-muddled middle.

Clearly, the ACC remains a men’s basketball conference in transition. A lot of coaching star power has departed in recent seasons, from Roy Williams to Mike Krzyzewski to Jim Boeheim to, now, Tony Bennett, whose retirement at Virginia earlier this month stunned the sport. For the first time since 1981, the ACC enters a season without a coach who has won a national championship.

Dean Smith soon changed that back then. Jim Valvano followed. A young coach with a difficult-to-spell last name in Durham slowly began his ascent. Nobody knew it then but the ACC was entering into another golden era of men’s basketball — probably the best of all eras in its storied history. Perhaps the league is on the brink of another such renaissance.

More likely, though, the fluidity of the sport and the constant rebuilding it necessitates will preclude that kind of consistent excellence from becoming the norm ever again. True college basketball programs are rarer now. Teams don’t linger, or last. More than ever, college basketball is a season-to-season endeavor. Yet even by the Triangle’s rich standard, this should be a fun one.

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