UNC Basketball 2018-2019

[Devilsforlife]

Without Little and Johnson, UNC would be an 8-seed type of team next year. Fucking infuriating that Little fell into their laps after the Adidas scandal and Johnson cares more about winning championships than playing basketball professionally overseas.

 

[rome8180]

I didn't realize that Cam Johnson shot so poorly from three last year. He still managed to be an efficient offensive player for them due to doing everything else well (twos, FTs, taking care of the ball). Imagine if he shoots more like he did at Pitt.

His defense is bad, at least on paper.

 

[CMon85]

So with Nova losing Brunson, UK losing Its guys and Duke losing Trent, somehow Roy has positioned UNC into being a contender and top 5 team again.

 

[CMon85]

Johnson getting to transfer to UNC without sitting out a year was such a crock of shit.

 

[uncy12]

It also didn’t really have a Point guard last year.

That's the dumbest thing you've ever posted.

And I strongly disagree about 'white showing pretty good vision'. I mean that's just not true at all.

I don’t see what’s so dumb about it. Joel Berry was a final MOP and went to the final 4 twice but he wasn’t a PG in the traditional sense. He was essentially an undersized combo scoring guard. I’m not trying to pretend that losing that Joel Berry is no big deal because it hurts a lot especially with his clutch factor and Theo Pinsons all around game will hurt too but I think Coby White is going to step in and be fine at point. He won’t be a traditional PG but from what I’ve seen of Coby, I think he has the tools to be a lead guard even if he isn’t a traditional PG.

Carolina’s ceiling this year was limited by awful big men play at times. Yeah, basketball is changing but good solid post play is the only way a Roy team really knows. Last year, the bigs were extremely inconsistent, and too weak in some games which killed us when the jump shots went down. Defense also was lacking from the bigs so we had absolutey zero answer or adjustments when guys were murdering Luke Maye at the 5 spot. UNC had a good shooting team last year not a great one. If the bigs improve on both ends, and we can keep our offensive rebounding at being elite, I think this team is a legitimate contender.

 

[rome8180]

I kind of agree with both posters here. I don't think Berry was really a PG. Neither was Marcus Paige, fwiw. But it also seems, based on what I've read and seen anyway, that Coby White is even less of a distributor than either of those guys.

Can Little function as a point forward? That may be the way to go. I do tend to think UNC is a top 10 team either way, perhaps even better if everything breaks right (spoiler: it will).

 

[CMon85]

I used to think Roy was fucked unless he had a top PG and big man but he's shown the ability to adapt. Williams-Little-Johnson-Maye is as good of a 2-5 you'll find next year so he really just needs his PG to play conservative. Wouldn't be shocked if its Seventh.

 

[deeyoukayeee]

The real question is whether or not White will buck the trend. Berry and Paige were total ass as freshmen. Marshall was no more than decent, and even Lawson and Felton struggled the first year they played for Roy. If White plays like Berry did as a freshman - and they strike me as similar type players - I think the ceiling will be the roof. If he is actually good, the floor might be the second level ceiling.

 

[CMon85]

Wasn't Bilas big into Cam being able to play at UNC immediately?

 

[physicsfactor]

UNC fans can deny it all they want, but playmaking is going to be an issue for them. A/FGM has always been a big part of Roy's offense. He doesn't know how to coach freelance offense where guys can create for themselves. His offense needs distributors. Berry wasn't a great distributor, but Pinson was for his position. Losing both of those guys plus Felton (even though he sucked at everything else) means they have no returning players with an assist rate of 14+ (basically equivalent to Wendell Carter) other than Seventh Woods (lol), and they aren't bringing in any creators.

 

[rhfarmer]

2 Senior starters are hard to replace at any program.

 

[deeyoukayeee]

2 Senior starters are hard to replace at any program.

Luckily for us, Mike Krzyzewski has obviated the need to ever do that again at Duke.

 

[uncy12]

Jordan Brown reached out to UNC through back channels to see if they were interested, and it appears UNC is now recruiting Jordan Brown. I don’t expect to get this guy nor do I really know much about them other than he has a good ranking and looked good in the McDonald’s game.

 

[rome8180]

He reached out to UNC and you don't expect to land him?

 

[uncy12]

He reached out to UNC and you don't expect to land him?

Guy is from California, and UNC doesn’t usually win this type of late recruitment. I think I’m right to be skeptical. I looked at the guys offer list, it doesn’t fit the profile of a typical elite recruit. His top schools right now are apparently UCLA, St John’s and Louisiana-Lafayette which he visited but it’d definitely be nice to get him.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[rome8180]

Sucks that UNC snapped their cold spell with truly elite recruits, and it was through backwards ass luck. No one would touch this dude, but UNC wasn't afraid to because they'd already gotten away with a quarter century of academic fraud.

 

[childress22]

Er, the last player to do that was Jahlil Okafor. The player before him to do that was Shabazz Muhammad. Just sayin.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

It's reassuring that the actual last guy to do it merely won a national title as a freshman, rather than skipping college and becoming a top 3 player of all time. Much better for Duke fans.

 

[Thain]