**OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

The fun starts tomorrow night Tar Heel fans!

Two years after losing the top seven scorers from the 2005 NCAA championship team the University of North Carolina returns six of its top seven scorers AND welcomes the nations top recruiting class (a class that includes three future lottery picks: Ty Lawson, Brandan Wright and Wayne Ellington). The key to Carolina’s success this season will be how well Roy Williams melds this talented freshman class with the overachievers of last season. The 2006 squad, led by freshman of the year and current PoTY candidate Tyler Hansbrough, surprised the pundits by winning 23 games, finishing 2nd in the ACC and securing a #2 seed in the NCAAs. Williams was awarded with the National Coach of the Year as a result.

Seasoned Tar Heel fans are worried. These fans are thinking back to the ’94 team that had talent oozing out of the Dean Dome but went out with a whimper with a 2nd round exit to B.C. Could this year be another case of too much talent not enough chemistry? I don’t think so and here is why. The seniors on this team (Wes Miller, Reyshawn Terry) only began to get minutes at UNC last year. They are not prima-donnas. In fact, they both will have to fight to make the starting line-up. Secondly, the core of the other returning players (sophomores Bobby Frasor, Marcus Ginyard, Danny Green and Tyler Hansbrough) showed their selflessness last season in exceeding expectations. I think Roy understands this and he is setting the bar high as a result. He casually mentioned a few weeks ago that the program’s points per game average over a season (the 1987 team averaged 91.3 pts per game) will be broken. Would the head coach go out on a limb like this if he thought chemistry was going to be a problem?

It really goes without saying that expectations are high in Chapel Hill (to be honest they always are). With the talent Roy has at his disposal anything less than a trip to Atlanta will deflate the Tar Heel nation.

UNC will be playing another difficult schedule. Key games include tOSU in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, UK (a game which pits college basketball’s two winningest programs), Arizona in Tuscon, at B.C. and, of course, at least two games against dook (who I must say are ripe for some payback this season). Note that this year’s ACC Championship is taking place in Tampa, Florida which is going to be cool.

UNC fans, ACC fans and college basketball fans get ready because the high scoring machine known as the 2006-2007 Tar Heels take flight for the first time tomorrow night


Tyler Hansbrough

http://nbadraft.net/profiles/largepi...nsbrough02.jpg

Brandan Wright

http://images1.istandfor.com/images/...EXT_Wright.jpg

Bobby Frasor

http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/...uke/Frasor.jpg

Ty Lawson

http://media.scout.com/Media/Image/24/248055.jpg

In Roy We Trust

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Co...8a.hmedium.jpg

Re: **OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

Frasor = My boy, went to high school with him. Is he starting this year, or is that freshman recruit?

Re: **OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

I can't wait. I expect Reyshawn to have a monster year.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9...2221446qm8.jpg


http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/5007/212061hl6.jpg

Re: **OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
Frasor = My boy, went to high school with him. Is he starting this year, or is that freshman recruit?

[/ QUOTE ]

SharkTank43,

Funny you mention Bobby in the thread's first reply. Bobby is my favorite UNC player right now. He came in as a true freshman and started all 31 games at PG which was out of position for him. Playing PG for Roy and at UNC is no easy task. Much of UNC's success last season can be attributed to Bobby picking up on Roy's complex offensive system, such as the secondary break, so adroitly. He is a coaches' son so some may have seen this coming.

The reason Bobby had to start out of position at PG last year is b/c we had nothing at the point (Quentin Thomas 'QT' didn't gain confidence until a third of the way into last season). This year is different as we go three deep now at PG. I think you'll find the starting line-up will be quite fluid this year with starting spots being battled out for in practice. This obviously is a good thing as the team will only get better with this competition. Don't forget the team is just coming out of the famed summer pick-up games in the Dean Dome where players such as MJ, Twan Time, Stack, VC, Sheed, May, etc. come to play. There will be only a few games when the team faces comparable competition to what they see day in and day out in the Dean Dome.

I think what will be interesting will be minutes played per game. In this stat you will find Bobby in the top three at the end of the season. He will get his minutes and his starts throughout the season. His skill set demands it.

Re: **OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

Nice post to bust your cherry on Go Heels.

Another Reyshawn fave...love the passion:


http://wc.arizona.edu/papers/98/246/mhoops/11.jpg

Re: **OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

Also, I didn't realize how deep we were until I watched the Midnight Madness on ESPN a few weeks ago. Just about every scholarship player should get lots of minutes this year.

Marcus Ginyard
Wayne Ellington
Reyshawn Terry
Bobby Frasor
Ty Lawson
Quentin Thomas
William Graves
Danny Green
Dewey Burke
Deon Thompson
Wes Miller
Surry Wood
Marc Campbell
Alex Stepheson
Brandan Wright
Mike Copeland
Tyler Hansbrough

Re: **OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

Liga,
What do you think our starting five will/should be,
I think
Frasor
Ellington
Terry
Wright
Hansbrough.

Re: **OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

I'd like to know why the UNC fans here are UNC fans. Are you current students/alumni, or is there some other reason?

(Both my parents went to UNC, and I grew up as a UNC diehard, so I cheer for them against almost all other schools.)

Re: **OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
Liga,
What do you think our starting five will/should be,
I think
Frasor
Ellington
Terry
Wright
Hansbrough.

[/ QUOTE ]


Swap Ginyard for Ellington and you have my starting five right now. Ginyard wasn't 100% (wrist, flu) for a bulk of the season last year. He is the best defensive guard on the team (remember what he did to Red Dick during his senior game). That being said, Ellington's jumper will land him in the starting five several times this year.

Psycho T and Brandan are the two players I expect to start every game this season.

Re: **OFFICIAL** UNC Tar Heels Bball 2007 Thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to know why the UNC fans here are UNC fans. Are you current students/alumni, or is there some other reason?

(Both my parents went to UNC, and I grew up as a UNC diehard, so I cheer for them against almost all other schools.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Class of '93 (TY Chris Webber and DW)