The University of North Carolina's basketball program is a successful college basketball program. Considered to be "one of the dominant basketball teams in the NCAA history", the Tar Heels have won four NCAA championships and 17 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament titles. The program is well-known for its famous alumni, such as Michael Jordan, coaching history, and a rivalry with the Duke University Blue Devils, and their rivalry is widely regarded as one of the most intense in all of sports.

UNC became only the second college basketball program to reach 1,900 wins in its history on January 21, 2007. The University of Kentucky was the only previous school to reach this mark, and the Kansas Jayhawks have since become the third team to reach 1,900 wins. The Tar Heels won their first NCAA Championship under coach Frank McGuire in 1957, and the 1957 championship team was led by Lennie Rosenbluth and several other transplants from the New York City area.

UNC was a member of the Southern Conference from the founding of that conference in 1921 through 1953, and in 1953, they split off from the Southern Conference and became a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tar Heels own several impressive streaks in college basketball history, and they appeared in either the NCAA Tournament or National Invitation Tournament every year from 1967 to 2001, including 27 straight appearances in the NCAA tourney from 1975-2001 after that competition allowed more than one team from a conference to get a guaranteed bid.