#1 NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS
Team: North Carolina Tar Heels
Conference: ACC
Last Season Recap: 31-7, 14-5 ACC (including tourney), ACC Champions, Elite Eight—UNC had the talent and style of play to tire almost any team into submission, but a lack of on-court leadership led to inconsistent play throughout the season, and against Georgetown the shooting went cold at the worst possible moment, leading to one of my more painful moments as a Heels fan.
What's to Love: This is, top to bottom, the most talented and deepest team in the nation. Hansbrough is expected to be a National Player of the Year contender. Deon Thompson and Alex Stepheson, both high school All-Americans, will get a lot more minutes this season in the absence of Brandan Wright. Terry's size at the swingman position will be missed, but Marcus Ginyard and Danny Green are both solid defenders who can play the position. And while Ty Lawson is expected to be the best point guard in the ACC this year, UNC is blessed to have two more good point guards, Bobby Frasor and Quentin Thomas, behind him. With the Heels at least 2 deep at every position and Roy Williams' fast paced offense, this team can run you ragged for 40 minutes every night. And to top it all off, Brandan Wright isn’t shooting free throws anymore. As great an inside player as he was, watching him shoot free throws was reason to run from your television.
What's Not to Love: Last year, the Heels were clearly not playing up to their talent, as inconsistent play led to losing winnable games all season. In particular, Carolina did not always play well late in close games. Some of the experts believed it was because they had too many players in their on-court rotation (at least ten players played 10 minutes per game, and 12 played at least six minutes). I think it was because the Heels had no true on-court leader. Both Lawson and Hansbrough appear poised to take that position.
This team also needs to become more consistent on defense if they want to prevent losing close games late.
Do not underestimate the losses of Wright, Rayshawn Terry, and Wes Miller--they accounted for about 30% of UNC's minutes last year.
Key Player: Wayne Ellington. One of UNC's biggest weaknesses, especially in the collapse against
Deon Thompson, UNC's only true first-time starter this year, will play a key role in determining how far this team will go.
Best Case: Tyler Hansbrough is player of the year; no injuries mean that opponents must deal with two good players at every position; Tar Heels finally play consistently behind the on-court leadership of Hansbrough and Ty Lawson; Ellington hits his threes; the team is able to play solid defense for 40 minutes.
Worst Case: Duke's Jon "Scheyerface" and NC State's Sidney “Black Santa” Lowe haunt UNC’s collective nightmares, steal the ACC Championship away from the Heels; a savvy point guard on an athletic team beats UNC in the Sweet 16.
STF Prediction: Barring injury, anything less than a title would be a disappointment...ACC double (reg. season and tourney), NCAA Tournament Champions.
2 comments:
Sorry---I had to add the Jon Scheyer photoshop at the end. It was just too good.
I'm going to be in attendance for the Carolina exhibition game tonight against Lenoir Rhyne. Hopefully everything runs smoothly and we get the expected/hoped for output from every position. I don't care who provides it as long as it is there.
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