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
Brandan Wright
Bobby Frasor
Ty Lawson
In Roy We Trust
