The North Carolina Tar Heels are one of the nation's greatest college basketball programs, having won six NCAA championships, plus nearly 70 combined ACC regular-season and tournament titles.

As a result of UNC's success, the country's top players want to play in Chapel Hill. North Carolina has put some of that recent talent into the NBA, such as Harrison Ingram earning the San Antonio Spurs' final roster spot this season.

Some other recent former Tar Heels were not as fortunate as Ingram, though.

On Oct. 19, former UNC standouts Armando Bacot, Cormac Ryan, Nassir Little and Pete Nance were waived by their respective NBA teams.

In a sports world that has an extremely difficult nature of business, NBA teams needed to trim their rosters – by 4 p.m. Saturday – to avoid salary cap hits.

Bacot, who is North Carolina's all-time leader in rebounds (1,715) and double-doubles (87), was waived from his Exhibit 10 contract with the Memphis Grizzles. Bacot played with the Utah Jazz in summer league action.

Ryan, who transferred from Notre Dame to Chapel Hill for his final season of college basketball last year, was waived from his Exhibit 10 contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Ryan averaged 11.5 points per game and shot a hair better than 35% from 3-point land.

Little, the Portland Trail Blazers' first-round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, was waived by the Miami Heat. Little started 36 of 237 regular-season games in his first five professional seasons, averaging 5.5 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.

Nance, who never lived up to his hype as Brady Manek's "replacement" during the Tar Heels' 2022-2023 campaign, was waived by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Nance played eight NBA games in his rookie season, averaging 0.4 points and rebounds per clash.

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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire : Four former UNC basketball standouts cut from NBA rosters over the weekend