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Two numbers to keep in mind as Carolina basketball tips off.
The first number is 60-plus, the victory margin of exhibition games last season and the new season. The Tar Heels beat St. Augustine’s by 64 points on October 27. A year ago, as the preseason No. 1 team in the country, they walloped Johnson C. Smith by 61.
The 2022-23 team opened the official season by beating UNC-Wilmington by 13 points, College of Charleston and James Madison by 16 points each and Gardner-Webb by six. That should have been a warning sign of what was to come, beginning with a comeback win over Portland in the first game of the Phil Knight tournament in Oregon.
The four-game losing streak ensued, and by the time the Heels beat Georgia Tech (also by 16 points) they were out of the rankings and heading for the wrong side of the NCAA bubble. So, obviously, the opener against Radford tonight and the next two games against Lehigh and UC-Riverside can fortel a different start to this season.
The second number is 23, which is the average age of UNC’s scholarship players, with 25-year-old Cormac Ryan the oldest of the group. Ryan is a six-year graduate student who began his college career with a season at Stanford and then four at Notre Dame. He is one of five transfers who with two freshmen leave Hubert Davis with only four returnees from his disappointing second team that missed the NCAA tournament.
Fifth-year grad students Paxson Wojick and Jae’Lyn Withers are 23; grad student Armando Bacot is also 23, and true senior R.J. Davis is 22. If Ryan, Wojcik and Withers join Bacot and Davis in the starting lineup, Carolina will field unofficially the oldest team in the nation with a combined 25 seasons of college ball on the remade roster.
“It’s been great having a bunch of new guys and different faces in the locker room,” Bacot said on Friday. “We kind of just flushed last season and really haven’t even thought about it. The guys on the team haven’t been through that. Only a few of us have, so it’s just great and refreshing.”
Wojcik, who transferred from Brown, was born in Chapel Hill when his father, Doug, was an assistant to Matt Doherty. As a coach’s son, his basketball IQ is high and despite not being super athletic can surprise people with his savvy.
“Being around the game for so long, just growing up going to college practices gave me an edge in high school and freshman year in college,” the 6-5 Wojick said. “Just knowing how competitive and intense every day is at the division one level, something I’m truly thankful for.”
Spoken like a true super senior.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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