Hope it isn’t a good news-bad news future for Carolina.
You know the old coaching answer to a trick question. What’s your team gonna look like next year? “The good news is we have everyone back,” the coach says, “bad news is we have everyone back.”
It would be great if the Tar Heels’ improvement continues Wednesday night against Wake Forest and Saturday against N.C. State, both at the Smith Center. Two wins would move them to 10-5 with some momentum for the trip to Pitt next week.
The originally scheduled home game with Notre Dame was moved from January 30 back to January 2 after Syracuse couldn’t come and later made it down on January 12. UNC won both.
Meanwhile, the Clemson visit on January 9 was also postponed and so far has not been rescheduled because there is no date that really works for both teams. So, the Heels may wind up just playing 19 ACC games. Call it COVID madness.
The point is Carolina needs to keep building its NCAA tourney resume since the schedule is back loaded with trips to Clemson, Duke, Virginia, Boston College and Syracuse, plus home games with Miami, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Florida State and Duke. Ouch.
Another reason success is needed from here on out is that, right now, no UNC player is listed in the two rounds of the NBA.net mock draft. And, while players could transfer in and transfer out, Garrison Brooks and Andrew Playtek are the only seniors, and both of them could come back for one more season with the COVID rules.
Roy Williams has two four-star recruits from North Carolina signed up, and is still in the running for five-star stud small forward Patrick Baldwin, who the gurus say will probably end up at Duke. Great.
Yes, the Tar Heels are playing better, under-12 turnovers in two of their last three games and shooting better from outside. What will Anthony Harris mean to team chemistry and backcourt minutes being divvied up between Caleb Love, RJ Davis, Kerwin Walton and Playtek.
No real stars may emerge this season, but the sum can still be better than the individual parts. Finishing .500 or close to it hurts for so many more reasons than the record. It could mean the news is everyone’s coming back. And we won’t know if that’s good or bad.
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How does all of this work out with 2 commitments for 2021 and possibly more to come ?
Works out great!….I assume you mean if Platek and Brooks came back….I think the COVID rules are going to allow teams to have more players than normal next year….it won’t count against the scholarships….be interesting to see what happens. About the article though regardless of how the record turns out this year if everyone came back it would definitely be a good thing…..would be a deep and talented team.
If Brooks or Platek decide to come back next season then it would hurt the playing time for those patiently waiting for their turn to play and I for one think both of those players would hurt us by coming back. Brooks isn’t the one we need starting and Platek just isn’t quick enough to play against stiffer competition. I think we will have plenty of depth without them and this would also look better to any possible recruits wanting to come to UNC knowing that they would be moving on. Can’t wait to see more of Kessler and Puff Johnson and they both need to get more playing time down the road. It is great to have a deep bench but somewhere you have to find your rhythm and rotating players in and out can be a problem more than a solution. If they need a break then burn a timeout that is available for a reason.