Via ESPN. UNC gets an A+. I bet Roy always got good grades in school.
A quick rundown of the incoming class:
There were plenty of departures from North Carolina’s national championship team, but Tar Heels fans need not worry; there is help on the way. UNC’s 2009 class has received plenty of hype, and it’s all well deserved. Although the Tar Heels spent the entire recruiting cycle as our top-ranked class before getting bumped by Kentucky in our final rankings, this class has everything a coach could dream of: players with dominating size, advanced skill level and explosive athletic ability. These five players will help to continue the successful tradition of North Carolina basketball. Long and super-athletic big man John Henson (Tampa, Fla./Sickles) may have the most upside of any frontcourt player in the Class of 2009. He possesses the scoring abilities of a small forward at 6-10, though he does weigh in at less than 200 pounds. He can shoot the ball facing up and handle the ball with confidence when he attacks the basket. Henson is a willing and good passer. Because of his slight frame, it will take time for Henson to fully develop his body to hold post position effectively, but he has soft hands, good footwork and excellent length to score with his back to the basket. The NBA will come knocking in time if he does his part. David and Travis Wear (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei) have great ball skills, work on defense and display a strong basketball IQ. They come from one of the strongest high school basketball programs in the country in Mater Dei. Both players also possess deceptive shooting range — especially for 6-10 centers. Dexter Strickland (Elizabeth, N.J./St. Patrick) is an ultra-athletic scoring guard who could be needed to play some backup point guard next season. He excels in the open floor and is a great finisher on the break, as he goes hard to the hole with power and speed. Strickland needs to improve his long-range jumper and middle game to get defenses to play him on the perimeter. Speaking of shooting, that’s exactly what Leslie McDonald will bring to Chapel Hill next season. This big guard can play anywhere on the perimeter with his size and savvy for the game.
Works for me.
The real surprise in conference recruiting has to be NC State which was given a B+. The Wolfpack made a late run to pickup some commits. A couple of players will be projects initially but recently committed DeShawn Painter along with Richard Howell, Lorenzo Brown and Scott Wood give NCSU a solid core group and a foundation on which they can build. I am not they will go to the NCAA Tournament in 2010 but assuming Sidney Lowe can figure out his substitution pattern the Pack will begin to show progress.
Duke’s two man class of Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee was touted as an A- in this article which spent a copious number of words lauding the fact that Kelly and Plumlee could play facing the basket. Excuse me, but the last I checked Duke was not lacking for big men who could play facing the basket or run the floor. The major deficiency for Duke has been the lack of a traditional interior presence and when they have tried to convert these mobile big men into such a presence it has not worked(see Josh McRobert and Shavlik Randolph.) Based on the limited play I have seen from Mason Plumlee in a few all star games, he looks like he could be a traditional center. It will be interesting to see if that is how he is used. In short, Duke is bringing in two very talented players but there will be questions in how they are utilized and developed once they arrive in Durham. That has been as much a bugaboo as the perceived recruiting woes.
It should be noted that Georgia Tech will bring in the 2nd best recruiting class in the ACC, still be medicore, lost half the class to the NBA after one season and somehow Paul Hewitt will still keep his job.
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next season should be fun. we have the talent to win a lot of games, but not as much pressure. should be a pretty wide open year for college basketball.
Next year looks like fun. Good balance of talent, with some experienced players to help guide it along. I don’t see a lot of drop-off if the new guys want to win, and I expect them to. The team will be a lot different than four guys watching #50 score, but then last year it was very different from that and look what happened.
I am getting worried about State, because Lowe and his staff seem to be very capable of evaluating raw talent. One of his point guard recruits, who is already a commit, is suddenly a five-star player. If he keeps this up, they may be respectable sooner than anyone thought. Lowe’s regime is able to find talent, get them to buy in on what Lowe wants to do, and get them to commit.
It would be great for the ACC and for UNC if Sidney Lowe were able to get it all to come together and follow up his above average recruiting with good team management and on-court coaching. The ebb and flow of non-Chapel-Hill programs around the ACC has been a little too much “ebb” lately.
What is the deal with Hewitt? I can’t figure him out. Five years ago he scared me as a potential center of gravity in the league. Now, not so much.
State will be better. It would be hard for an NC State team to be much worse in terms of being competitive within the conference and with other major conference teams.
They will be better, not only because of the addition of the new recruits, but the fact the team malignancy, Costner, is gone. Fells wasn’t far behind either because of his terrible inconsistency.
I love the football season but I can NOT wait for the b-ball game against UK!
Nothing against Kelly or Plumlee, but in my mind I am already picturing Ed Davis swatting away their shots when they play the Heels.
I give dook a F. In everything. (If I wasn’t biased I would give them a B+.)
I found it interesting at the Basketball Museum there was a display stating that Coach Wiliams turned down an engineering scholarship to Georgia Tech because he thought he might want to coach instead. I don’t think I was aware of that fact, but found it neat.
If you haven’t checked out the museum in Chapel Hill, I would highly recommend it. We spent 2 hours there and could have gone another hour easy, but I am still recovering from ankle injury.
I can’t wait to see Henson. He sounds like a beast. We are going to be a big team next year. ’bout time to see some quality coming off the bench.
Hey, hey. We had quality this year too. (Or is it last year? Still not sure what to call it.) Remember Ed Davis and Bobby Frasor? Yeah they were pretty good.
It is going to be interseting to see clean versus questionable going head to head in the rankings this upcoming year for national standings.
While it is great to be partisan for UNC, remember that most games are in the confrence and therefore we want all teams to be strong, especially against teams with a K in the name!
I really think there will be big guys running for UNC this year, especially with the depth (at least at the start) available. I think a running attack is easy to teach, and encourages better rebounding and quicker play at times when it can happen with little risk.
It also wears down and discourages the opposition.
Yes you need guard play to run some breaks, but most of all it is an attitude and passing. If you have the ability and speed.