Well, thing is, that lineup looks good from a high school recruiting ranking standpoint, but to me it's not really a winning lineup. They have a shot-blocking presence, but both of their big men should be relatively easy for anyone of bulk to push around. With those two plus three starting freshmen, they are going to have major defensive problems.
Assuming a timeshare between Marshall and LDII, their other depth is essentially Strickland and Graves, unless McDonald can suddenly become a player. Personally, I don't think Marshall is going to start over LDII, but either way the problem with UNC's talented lineup is they don't have the right PG to take advantage of the strengths of their other players. With those two running the point and without frontcourt depth it's going to be difficult to maintain the running style which is really their only hope to overachieve.
I think NC State is now clearly better than UNC. The Heels will be fighting to finish in the middle of the pack in the ACC.
There, did I make up for it?
First of all, I really do believe State is better than UNC next year. I thought it before the Wears transferred.
Second, I was trying to make up for being too nice to Carolina in a previous post, and being called out about it (by MChambers). It's all in fun, anyway, right?
I agree that it's a pretty good team as Zeller is certainly a decent player, Henson will be very good and presumably Barnes is the real deal. Drew is a more than competent PG at this stage and Graves can occasionally fill it up. Add in a presumably decent to good freshman in Bullock and the team looks ok. Will they lose a lot nevertheless? Absolutely. Should we beat them twice? Yes. Nolan and Kyle will be the best two players on the floor when we play them with Kyrie not far behind.
was glee - wow, UNC is gonna suck next year. But after some reflectificating, I don't think that this really hurts them and may in fact be a positive for 2010-11. The Wears didn't show too much flash and would probably average a combined 10pts or less per game, with 8 or fewer rebs etc. Those aren't bad numbers for So., but they would get used if available, cuz they need the depth in the post, and would dilute the overall talent of the roster.
Ol' Roy may or may not be able to adjust to the roster that he has, but there is plenty of talent over there, just not a lot of depth at the 4 and 5 spots. I'm sure HB would rather play more of a SF game, but he's (presumably) got the talent to play the 4 as well.
My big doubt for them is: how will they deal with no frontcourt depth. They could and maybe should start all 3 of their big'uns, but how are they gonna handle the total lack of subs for the 4 and 5? i guess they'll kind of be the anti-2010 National Champions (that would be us), who had 3 guards and lots of frontcourt depth...
Talent is there for sure, you can't deny that. Anyone who does is not seeing things correctly. That being said, the experience obviously isn't there to translate to late season success. Zeller would be the most experienced of the 5, and how much real experience does he have, given all his injuries?
Anyways, this could be a top 25 team on talent alone, but as the season wears on and the team wears down (did you like that?), they won't be getting too far.
I agree re Kyle and Nolan being better than anyone on UNC's roster, I have no opinion on Kyrie vs. HB as I have never seen them play, but you think Kyrie is better than the Anointed Best Freshmen In the Country? As pointed out earlier in Kyrie's thread, I think KI may very well end up having a better profile by the end of next year simply by playing on a) a better team and b) on a team that will allow him to play to his strengths.
HB is playing w/o any excellent guards to get him the ball and is now playing with no frontcourt depth so he'll end up playing out of position on occasion.
Kyrie on the other hand is a PG and will play PG, not out of position. He also has, literally, tons of people to pass the ball to for high-percentage shots.
I really enjoyed watching the movie "The Silence Of The Rams" last year, and I hear they might have a sequel, although they are rarely as good as the first ones.
Oh, how I desperately wish that one of the Wears was named Waldo!
Has anyone else seen the twitter chatter after this? Henson and a few others were really talking badly about the Wears... saying they were glad they were gone because now they could get some real players, saying they left because they couldn't find a place to park their pickup truck, saying they couldn't tell them apart anyway... Deon actually twittered at the other guys to knock it off, it wasn't funny.
Check out The Devils Den or even Inside Carolina for some pretty long posts about it.
The chemistry on that team is just abysmal, and I don't know if the Wears were part of the problem, or are leaving because of it.
Upon reading of the Wears' departure my first thought was, "...like rats off of a sinking ship." Apparently players don't seem to have as much fun over there when constantly losing. Lots of departures. Is this it? Any more?
It isn't so much the height as the heft, as NC@CH has I think ONE player over about 215 lbs (and that's a 6'4" guard!). Not sure what HB weighs in at these days, but frosh usually can add strength/bulk. This team is going to get pushed around inside badly, and when they start helping from the perimeter - which is inevitable - then good outside shooting teams (such as Duke) will make them pay. I don't see this being more than an average defensive squad, especially with all of the youth.
If either of their 2 bigs gets injured the year, or in foul trouble, then they are in serious trouble. Combine that with the dearth of leadership & experience and you have a recipe for another disappointing season down the road. I don't expect another .500 regular season, but these guys are no slam dunk (excuse pun) to make the NCAAT. I peg them at #4-#5 in ACC preseason. Teams are much more than just adding up recruiting rankings of individual players. This year NC@CH fans are better off watching footbal than BB (when'd you ever think you'd hear that??).
As stated above by Ash, "The chemistry on that team is just abysmal, and I don't know if the Wears were part of the problem, or are leaving because of it." That's one aspect that the IC faithful seem to think Ole Huck is just going to wave his magic wand over and make it go away. That won't happen easily or, I expect, quickly.
BTW, Roy better pray that HB is "the real deal" b/c his best bet is probably going to be to just roll the ball out to HB and see how much he can carry the team. You kinda hafta wonder if Harrison is thinking to himself, "Man, this isn't what I signed up for..."
Hmmmmm.
P.S. And yes, I too pick NCSU above NC@CH.
Last edited by -bdbd; 05-06-2010 at 12:45 PM.
(couldn't help stealing that Bushism)
I find myself actually wishing the Heels a better season next year than this season.
I hope they actually WIN the NIT next year!!
They seemed like good kids to me. Maybe not the most talented but when they were in the game they worked hard. I can see why they wouldn't want to stay in that environment .
While I realize they weren't the 2 most talented kids... a program can really use those sorts of players. I'm sure there were people who would've said "they weren't that good anyway" if Lance or Zoubs had left after their freshman years. Look how that turned out? How about a guy like McClure... what would people have said if he transfered? I don't know but I do know Duke was better off having a guy like that stick around.
You need continuity to build a consistent team that competes for titles every year. What is UNC going to do in a year when Barnes and Henson are declaring early after UNC had a decent but not great year? They are going to need some big things to go their way in recruiting over the next 12 months.
This has been the most interesting aspect of this transfer story for me. It's pretty evident there were cliques on that team, and the Wears seemed to be on the outside looking in. Henson's tweets, in particular, would disturb me if I were a Carolina fan. *shudder* That young man should grow up (and learn the difference between "their" and "there").
Anyway, maybe the team chemistry will be better with the Wears gone, but all the talent in the world can't overcome bad chemistry, IMO. Suddenly, last season is making a lot more sense.
IMO, UNC is the big swing team in the ACC and the national map next year. In the end, I believe Duke will still hold the upper hand but before we dismiss them let's look at few different aspects of their team.
1. Team chemistry was a big "cloud" over them this past year that was repeated over and over. Seems that a few of the rumored reasons now may be gone in Davis, Thompson and the Wears. To what extent each affected team chemistry is debatable but it appears some combo of those four contributed to it.
2. Some are quick to say they have no frontcourt depth and as a result they should be dismissed to the NCAA bubble or the NIT once more. Wasn't this past year's Duke team questioned for the same reason in the backcourt? Yes, Scheyer and Nolan were a more reliable duo but no one for sure knew Nolan would have the huge uptick in his contributions as he did while Andre would provide some insurance and make some big shots in his limited playing time. I understand Duke had other reliable options also, such as Kyle but who is to say that neither one of Zeller or Henson turns the corner and becomes a 15/8 player while the other is solid contributor. In addition, Barnes could spell them occassionally upfront.
3. Though freshman, Barnes and Bullock do provide them the possible outside perimeter shooting they lacked. Again, freshman are violatile in production so this can also go many ways but at they do provide UNC more options.
4. UNC's major issue to me still will be PG and that to me will be what ultimately drags them down. I think Drew got bashed unfairly but at the same time he was miscast for UNC's system. Whether Marshall is the answer remains to be seen as it seems his stock has dropped.
All I'm saying, and "I'm just sayin" is lets not gloat too much here as some have. I'm not including everyone here as some are more cautious in their opinions of UNC's situation. There is talent over there and sometimes things just need to be added or taken out and stirred back up to get it right. Maybe it works for UNC, maybe it doesn't but from the shade of blue, it will be interesting to see how it goes over there. Do they beat the Duke team next year? I don't think so but they will be a player in my opinion next year.
I don't see this development affecting UNC very much, if at all. They're still stacked with talent (a minimum of 4 future draft picks in the starting 5) and more experience in the back court. I would bet on them being in the top 4 of the ACC, maybe even top 2, and a very difficult match-up for most teams with the size of their wings and tremendous athleticism.
There should be no breakdown from Roy here. There is still a ton of talent to work with here that pretty much every other college program would love to have. No doubt, this team will be a lot better than last years'.
"Just be you. You is Enough."