I have to say that I was disappointed in the crowd. ESPNU kept showing the non-student sections and there were a lot of empty lower level seats. If you have these seats, either show up or give your tickets to someone that will.

In my opinion, UNC made a horrible decision when they abandoned clear channel WBT radio for satellite radio which few people have and which seems to be dying. The Panthers are on WBT. UNC should be too.

I came away very excited about the prospects for this season. They made it look so easy down low. Yeah, it will get harder, but the Heels will also get better! And there were some 3s knocked down, too. For all of the legitimate concern regarding outside shooting, it was nice to see some success right out of the block.

deon is deon, he’ll quiet down as one said once he faces guys of his own size, but as i’ve thought for 3 years now, if deon does deon and doesn’t try to be tyler, he can face up and use his skillset to “opportunistically” score 20 a game. maybe not throw it into him and let him beat three guys for a dunk, but secondary breaks, screen and pops, and using good footwork inside. did i say larry looked good? yeah…

i have to apologize for any graves-hating i’ve done. as a guy who is in his fourth year training and practicing and being around roy williams (he’s a redshirt jr right?), he seems to be our only true perimeter firepower. his dribble pull up from the elbow and the lofted pass he caught on the run that he took straight up for another jumper were probably the two most “offensive plays” of any of our perimter guys in terms of looking like we didn’t need to be wide open shooting a set shot for the ball to go in.

mix graves tools with the fact that ed, deon, and zeller all can step out and hit ten footers, and i don’t think oru team is zonable…esp when larry and marcus can knock down wide open looks. but it looks like we can go inside and hit our bigs for baseline extended jumpers or run high low even if we’re not hitting 3′s and be fine against the 2-3 zone.

the group of freshman are interesting. compared with other top recruiting classes, this group really seems unpolished. i am however a victim of fuzzy memory b/c it’s hard to really think of lawson and wayne and wright, or ray, rashad and may as freshmen and not how they left, but these guys don’t seem ready to make BIG impacts. henson is just freaky with his size footwork and hops, but he’s 195 lbs and is very raw, the wears are solid but will need to continue working on their speed and quickness and defensive footwork, and strick is a slasher combo guard being forced into the role of true PG, which made him look uncomfortable. he shined on the one play that was instinct, grabbing a loose ball with the clock expiring, going coast to coast and pulling up for a deep 2 as the clock expired. no time to think and he looked nice….i’d love to see him get minutes off the ball where he can get into passing lanes and cause havoc and get out and be on the receiving end of an outlet instead of initiating the break w/ the ddribble all the time.

for what it’s worth, davis is a beast, and zeller looked great. he’s still got to log some more minutes to really get the college game down, but he is a skilled 7 footer with good legs and good hands, so as he gets more comfortable i don’t see how you can stop him.

if graves can shine, and strick and henson can adjust to their roles, then along w/ zeller we have 8 very tough guys on the court at anytime, with guys like the wears, watts, etc…to give us good quality minutes w/o a drastic drop in play. i was surprised at how good i feel about UK coming up when we really have to go to work, even w/ so much inexperience. i think that in crunch minutes, those top 8 can really get the job done and have enough O to compliment the D to get wins.

Even if he has NBA talent, which was less than fully on display during the game, his body needs more than one year’s work. At 6′ 10″, he’s going to be expected to have an inside game, and he simply can’t play inside against NBA types at his current weight and build.

Overall, as expected, they know who they are and got alot of work on the offensive end against a zone defense and defending a team spreading out the floor and driving on Carolina’s bigs on the other end, which they’ll see alot of this season. As expected, this team has great potential on the defensive end and will struggle shooting the basketball, but has all the pieces necessary to be very successful at the highest level. Now its up to those pieces to continue to develop and Roy to fit them together over the next 5 months. Looking forward to watching this team develop and grow over the remainder of the season.