Comments on: The Season Rides on Drew

By: heeledsoul

heeledsoul — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:03:05 +0000

I’m glad to see all peeps on same page in terms of expectations for LD2. I’m not expecting Lawson, not Felton, and not even Cota… Just Cota-esque in that I want to see him as a pass first and pass second and shoot if you must type PG. Limit turnovers and give us 6 pts, 6-7 assists. And let the bigs do the rest. Having LD2 and Ginyard together on the floor wil probably give us great stability and tremendous defense in the backcourt.

By: uncgirl50

uncgirl50 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:37:30 +0000

LD II is going to do well. No one expects him to be as great a point guard as Ty and he doesn’t have to be, as long as he’s a good on court leader and ball distributor.

BTW, I ran into John Henson somewhere on campus the other day. I forgot exactly where b/c I was so starstruck at the time. I literally ran into him. I was walking and texting at the same time and I wasn’t looking where I was going and I ran smack dab into him. I looked up and saw this huge 6’10 guy and I recognized him. I stammered “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry John!” and he said “No problem” and walked away. It was pretty amazing!

By: Heel To The End

Heel To The End — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:13:38 +0000

i think he’s going to do just fine. after all, Roy recruited him. i could see him eventually being somewhere in the Jimmy Black to Kenny Smith spectrum.

By: HeelYeah

HeelYeah — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:10:14 +0000

Ty Lawson was best at getting the ball down the court in record time by dribbling past defenders. Drew does not have that kind of speed, but there are other ways to get the ball down the court in a hurry. With bigs that can run the floor, I think UNC will rely more on the outlet pass this year to set up breaks/secondary breaks. We have enough size to rebound well without all of our guys crashing the boards each time, so I think the opportunities will be there for nice long passes down the court.

By: DeanForever

DeanForever — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:23:12 +0000

I think that Roy has purposefully over-sold the notion that we will be near transparent at the point. He is obviously lowering the expectations (there), as any good coach would do. Yet, Roy being Roy, it sounds like he and the staff will prep so that they have 3-4 guys who can handle the point; thus, there WILL be depth there. I’m liking this scenerio more and more. Of course, with youth there will be some breakdowns…but, Marcus is gonna be in that mix somewhere too. If we can have a point rotation of Drew-Strickland-Ginyard…then I won’t lose much sleep.

The key to this year’s team, perhaps more so than any team in the Roy era, will be the defensive execution. We give K and Dook a lot of crap, but Mike Krzyzewski can get by with spare parts and win 25-30 because of the defense that he teaches. Sure, there are a lot of b.s. gimmicks (flopping, illegal reaches, and [of course] errant elbows being thrown), but Dook are able to stay in most games because they can (somewhat) manipulate the pace with their defensive packages. There is a lot of man-to-man in what they do, but the Dook players really do follow the ball well…it is scary to think what they would/will do with some real athletes…

Back to point, the Heels have to follow the ball and not get lost chasing down three-point-shooters. I’m sure Roy and staff will have the textbooks out all season long.

By: scl11

scl11 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:05:17 +0000

How do you replace one of the best offensive teams in Carolina History and still plan to defend your NCAAT?

With Defense. Defense will be the key item for the 2009/10 Heels. This year’s team has the “POTENTIAL” to be one of the best defensive Carolina teams in the past 15 years. With a front court of Davis, Thompson, Henson, and Zeller swating shots (just read Roy’s comments on the potential to be the best shot blocking team he has ever coached), Drew & Strickland pressuring the perimeter with their quickness, and Ginyard & McDonald flying around defenders and denying passing lanes. There is alot of potential for good things on the defensive end of the floor, and Drew is a key part of that.

Drew just needs to be Larry Drew not Ty Lawson, and everything will be alright. I was impressed with Drew’s ability to defend early last season and he clearly lost confidence last season. If he protects the ball and plays with confidence, he and the rest of the Heels should be fine.

By: william

william — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:12:09 +0000

While Tyler Hansbrough turned out to be a better person and a better Tar Heel than anyone could have expected him to be, I have to say that I always expected him to be pretty damn good as a player. Tyler was not Hubert Davis in terms of blowing away expectations on the court. He probably reminds me most of Bobby Jones, but Tyler was certainly much more highly touted coming in than was Jones.

Two things really stick with me about Hansbrough: the fact that he actually mentioned school work in a specific, non-rote way during interviews and the Pete Rose (without the gambling) ethic.

By: badbadleroybrown

badbadleroybrown — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:08:02 +0000

There’s no doubt that you need a great point guard to make the run but you need a great supporting cast as well. You can look to Ed Cota as well as Lawson and Felton if you want to go deep on talent, focus on experience or look at really well defined roles on a team.

I like what Drew was doing last year and I would agree he did well in the ACC tourney, hard to say after that given that he was hurt. Having him run the team and the leadership coming from the experienced players is a good balance as well and in my opinion reduces the burden a little bit. I would think too that he is probably a little more media savvy given his Dad. Certainly helpful in the role he will have next year.

Nice article and opinions as well THF.

Go Heels!

By: TheUNCFan

TheUNCFan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:52:34 +0000

Drew didn’t exactly stink it up in the ACC tourney… he and Ed Davis had a nice game going on feeding into the low post, and that will be bread and butter all season. I’m not worried about him. If he gets to run the team from day 1, he’ll be totally different than coming in cold after playing spare change minutes to relieve Lawson.

I do not blame the coach for having several point guard options – both incoming freshmen are, well, freshmen, and I would not be surprised to see Ginyard as a “safety valve” at PG, someone who is experienced enough to get the ball frontcourt if the freshmen get the yips against a pressing team or something.

By: TarHeelInMinny

TarHeelInMinny — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:27:59 +0000

LD needs to be King Rice. Get the ball where it needs to go, score enough to keep the defense honest, and limit turnovers. I honestly think he’ll be fine. We’ve been spoiled a bit with Tywon and Raymond this decade. LD will be lots better than Bobby was, and we have enough talent around him for us to make another FF run.