It’s still hard to envision what a UNC basketball team without Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson will look like.

But the talent well will not run dry for the Tar Heels when the next rendition of the men’s basketball team takes the court in the fall.

Assuming that all of the underclassmen from UNC return to the Tar Heels, Carolina Blue and 247Sports’ Ross Martin says there will be a lot of what coach Roy Williams likes on next year’s roster – experienced talent.

“You’re going to have Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks, Joel Berry, Justin Jackson and Theo Pinson as the key parts to that lineup,” Martin says. “And I think, right there, that’s your starting lineup.”

The other player that received major playing time throughout the latest run to the national championship game will be rising-senior Nate Britt, who Martin says can expect his playing time and role to increase in his final year as a Tar Heel.

In addition to sophomores Kenny Williams and Luke Maye, who played in the majority of games over the past season, UNC is welcoming in three freshmen that Martin expects to have an immediate impact – McDonald’s All-American center Tony Bradley, wing Brandon Robinson and combo guard Seventh Woods.

Martin says this will lead to continued depth at the guard and wing positions for UNC, while a lot of pressure will be placed on the Carolina big men.

“Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks are going to have to make big steps from last season,” Martin says. “They both were not very consistent. Isaiah Hicks had a great stretch where he was scoring double digits but, kind of, fell off during the end of the season. We all know how Kennedy Meeks, kind of, didn’t play up to his potential for the majority of the year but showed flashes at the end.

“But those guys are capable; they’re going to have to bring it more consistently like Brice Johnson did this past year.”

One key will be if any underclassmen decide to test the NBA waters. Martin says he sees Joel Berry, Isaiah Hicks, Justin Jackson and Kennedy Meeks as fringe NBA players right now that could benefit from another year in Chapel Hill. Most mock drafts line up with Martin’s opinion, but that doesn’t mean players won’t enter their names in the draft.

A rule change has pushed the date back by which underclassmen have to remove their name from NBA consideration, which means players will be able to go through the NBA combine and get feedback from NBA teams before making a decision to stay in the draft or come back to college.

All of the talent potentially returning plus the addition of a freshman class expected to make an impact doesn’t mean the Tar Heels will go without challenge in the Atlantic Coast Conference next season. Duke, Louisville, North Carolina and Virginia are consistently in the top 10 of the admittedly-far-too-early Top 25 projections for next season, with Duke as the near-consensus number one team and Martin’s early favorite to win the 2017 national championship.

“They bring in the number one and number two players in the country in Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum,” Martin says. “They bring back Luke Kennard, who really showed he could really score, Grayson Allen [and] Amile Jefferson.”

And, of course, there’s still an NCAA decision that is coming at some point that could impact the Tar Heels.

Listen to the full conversation with Martin and WCHL’s Blake Hodge below:

 

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