Don’t expect to see the same old North Carolina next basketball season. Graduation and early departures are forcing a change in how the Tar Heels will play.
UNC’s standard for running its offense through the post and aiming to get high percentage shots near the rim on just about every possession will have more balance, as the majority of the Tar Heels’ talent and depth is on the perimeter.
Carolina coach Roy Williams wants his teams to play fast. UNC’s effort to work the ball inside while also playing faster than most other teams has worked out quite well. Even with 7-footers, or close to it, Williams’ teams have always forced the tempo. They’ve even turned getting fastbreak buckets after opponents’ scores into an art form.
Next year’s Tar Heels, however, won’t exactly have such bigs now that Tyler Zeller and John Henson are off to the NBA. UNC also struck out in trying to lure Connecticut transfer Alex Oriakhi, a strong 6-foot-9 forward who instead chose Missouri and can play immediately because UConn is ineligible for postseason play next spring.
So, what Ol’ Roy now has is a collection of long perimeter players, a big who nearly bolted for the league and some inexperienced freshmen and sophomore big men who may or may not pan out. One way this team can excel is to play faster than any of Williams’ previous teams.
The Hall of Fame coach has talked about having a team that generates 100 possessions a game. He may be on the verge of developing one. Think of Missouri this past season, with the difference being the Tar Heels are more talented on the perimeter and have more depth. Plus, Mizzou didn’t have James Michael McAdoo in the paint.
The 6-foot-9 soon-to-be sophomore came on strong late this season, exploding for some big games in the ACC and NCAA tournaments. His potential has been compared to that of UNC legend James Worthy (see the post moves) and former UNC All-American Rasheed Wallace (see athleticism and jumpers).
If sophomores Desmond Hubert and Jackson Simmons – Henson described Simmons last fall as a “beast” around the basket – and freshmen Brice Johnson (6-foot-9) and burly Joel James (6-foot-10, 280 pounds) can provide 30-32 solid minutes combined, it might be enough to complement a wing attack that will surely look a lot different than what fans have grown accustomed.
Highly touted freshman Marcus Paige likely will man the point with some help from senior Dexter Strickland, who went down for the season with a knee injury in mid-January. Strickland may regain his starting two-guard spot, especially with junior Reggie Bullock moving to the wing forward position.
If Williams goes small to start games, you just may see Paige, Strickland, sophomore P.J. Hairston (6-foot-6) or junior Leslie McDonald (sat out last season with knee injury), Bullock (6-foot-7) and McAdoo comprise the first five. Bullock and Hairston are quality rebounders, even on the offensive end, so they will help what surely won’t be the same kind of rebounding club the Heels were this past season. They were tops in the nation.
Freshman J.P. Tokoto and sophomore Like Davis could get into the perimeter rotation, too.
There’s a bunch of talent in that lineup and a lot of long-ball shooters, and when UNC is a really good perimeter shooting team under Williams, such as in 2005 and 2009, it has won national championships. Neither of those teams was particularly big inside, either.
Of course, the new-look Tar Heels of next year are not on par with those title clubs, but they share some characteristics and should have one thing over them: Speed. And those clubs were fast, too.
UNC has been about pounding the ball inside for decades, and it’s a concept Williams swears by. He’s mastered the ability to recruit and coach big teams that can run. But maybe he will enjoy the challenge that comes with this group, not just in how it tries to score, but also defends.
Plenty of Carolina fans will welcome a team that can scramble and trap, one that plays dog-in-heat defense on the perimeter and on the ball and one that gains advantages away from the basket instead of just around it.
UNC will still go inside plenty to McAdoo, but the thought of a calculated run and gun team capable of raining threes all over the place should be a nice change of pace in Chapel Hill.
The coach would surely love to have Henson, Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall back for another season, but he also has to be salivating at the prospect of coaching his fastest team ever. It should be a fascinating ride.
