Walk on at UNC?

[sandinmyshoes]

I hear Greg Little is going to walk on at UNC. Does anyone know how good a basketball player he is? Was he offered basketball scholarships?

I figure UNC is too deep for him to get any minutes. And football walkons are usually just practice fodder. But Ronald Curry and especially Julius Peppers have scarred me when it comes to UNC and football walkons. Even that Holley(sp?) kid caused me a momentary twitch.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I hear Greg Little is going to walk on at UNC. Does anyone know how good a basketball player he is? Was he offered basketball scholarships?

I figure UNC is too deep for him to get any minutes. And football walkons are usually just practice fodder. But Ronald Curry and especially Julius Peppers have scarred me when it comes to UNC and football walkons. Even that Holley(sp?) kid caused me a momentary twitch.

Curry was just as highly recruited for bball as he was for fball, but due to NCAA rules, he had to be on football scholarship in order to play bball as a freshman as well. It has to do with "hiding" scholarships for the "more" major sport, which according to the NCAA, is football. We, of course, disagree. This was all a major topic of discussion "back in the day" :)

[Olympic Fan]

Don't forget, Duke had Reggie Love, a football player who played a small -- but significant -- role for the 2001 national champs. Also, D Bryant played basketball, although he was merely practice fodder.

I'd be surprised if Greg Little is anything other than practice fodder either (BTW, that's not a put-down, good practice competition is very valuable to a coach). Little was not a recruited basketball player.

Curry was in a different category -- he won national prep player of the year awards in both football and basketball. But because of football and injuries, he really only gave UNC one significant year on the basketball court (2000-01). Peppers is a different story. He was not widely recruited as a basketball player, but he was a very significant player for the Heels during their 2000 Final Four run and a good contributor the next year (the 2000-01 team that spent a month at No. 1 before the collapsed at the end).

But other than those two, UNC has had a lot of football/basketball players, but I can't think of any who ever made a difference in a game (that includes Holley).

[freedevil]

He's better than me, but not better than any of the 10-12 players ahead of him that are already part of the team.

[HumboldtDevil]

If nothing else they add a big, strong, athletic freshman for practice a week after Duke loses Marty for the season. Does this get added to the Duke-Carolina comparison?

[greybeard]

My guess, if you really enjoy and understand the game and can put it all together well enough to make a team like Duke or UNC but not well enough to play in games, being practice fodder could well be the experience of a lifetime. I think that the number of players for whom that is true greatly exceeds the number for whom it isn't.

[dukejim1]

is that Greg Little wanted to try to play big time basketball. Butch Davis persuaded Roy to consent and thus help pursuade Little to change his commitment from Notre Dame