What: Jordan Brand Classic
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
When: Saturday, April 17th, 8:00 PM
TV: ESPN2
More future Tar Heel goodness on the court. The trio of incoming Tar Heels take the court in New York. Reggie Bullock will be playing for the East. Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall will play for the West. No, I have no idea how these teams get divvied up.
Comments if you have ‘em as you bask in the glow of reassurance emanating from Harrison Barnes that next season will be okay.
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In NYC and headed to the game right now.
These guys are playing 1/4 speed
Watching the future Tar Heels now, and then will watch Ty play after this game in the NBA playoffs. Go Nuggets!
Every playoff game today has a Tar Heel playing in it.
These guys are looking like a bunch of chuckers right now. Barnes I think is the only one whose make a pass yet. By the way he gets points effortlessly and in the flow.
Whatever you think is the normal dean dome crowd, the JBC crowd is the opposite.
Nice sequence for the Tar Heels there.
Common is pefromring at halftime. No idea who that is
Update please? Unable te see it right now. Thx.
^^He’s a rapper/actor, and he’s not bad.
have to say,, Barnes and Marshall wear that carolina blue quite well!!!!!… Bullock is on the East but sure he will too
75 to 56 at the half? Give me a break. Jack up shots as quickly as possible and play some very token D.
Barnes did have some nice buckets, and showed good hustle on putbacks. Marshall also made some nice assists. Where’s Reggie? If he expects to get anything, he’s going to have to be more selfish with his shots…..that’s basically the kind of game this is.
still say Barnes is a starter next season..
How many does Barnes have? Stats please.
Bullock has a quiet 9 points.
at half he had 11 point ,one other teammate on west had 12
Barnes has a double-double.
I think it is 13 pts and 10 boards. The last points and rebound was a follow dunk.
13 now for barnes
Barnes for three, assist from Marshall.
Going to be seeing a lot of that.
that outside shooting from Barnes is what we did not have this season on a regular basis..looking foward to seeing the outside shooting from Barnes as well
Well we’ll have a go to scorer next year.
Barnes can hit free throws as well !!!!
Think Harrison Barnes is the real deal…go all around kid..
Barnes 20 pts and 15 rebs….freak
Not a big fan of these announcers..
Jimmy Dykes and Jay Williams. Not many people are.
Hope we DO NOT see that often next year!! ( Irvings basket)
Who was that point guard wearing #12 for the West that was throwing the ball all over the place like it was free candy at a parade? Someone needs to let Marshall know that valuing the basketball was a problem in Chapel Hill this year.
Bullock and Barnes are studs, but the fate of how good Carolina is next year will again rest on the shoulders of Larry Drew II. Not that I anticipated it before, but there is zero chance Marshall is an elite point guard Day One in Chapel Hill, hopefully he’ll have a chance to be the best point guard in the ACC by his junior or senior year once Irving leaves early for the NBA (damn K just got his Ty Lawson), but hopefully DrewII will continue to improve enough that Carolina won’t need Marshall to be elite next season. Adding two scorers and big time players in Bullock and Barnes gets UNC back into the NCAAT (65 not 96), and it will depend on how good DrewII is next season that will determine how the rest of that story plays out.
Irving looks like a dukie…..
Irving looks like Jason (call me Jay) Williams only quicker…
The thing that I’m seeing repeatedly is that Barnes has been the best player in all of these games, Bullock has been solid as a complimentary player, and Marshall has been really up and down. Marshall has made some fabulous assists, but he’s also made some frustrating turnovers and he’s not been looking/able to score. I’m not of the opinion that they have to have a warp speed pg to be successful, but I do feel better if, when things break down, the pg can get his own shot. I’m not making any definitive statements, but I am curious/concerned about Marshall’s ability to do that.
Bullock seems like one funny kid.. his personality, his swagger. he cracks me up with those diamond stud earrings…
never was a fan of JAY williams,, he was a cry baby in college…
anyone know who the MVP’s were of Jordan classic???..
Tend to agree about Marshall’s ragged play, although I will give him somewhat of a pass for getting caught up in this type of game. This was a classic elite showcase game (and the final one of the year, so the kids really force the action to show what they can do) that goes as fast as they can play it, producing forced shots, ugly passes,and a lot of generally sloppy play. Even Barnes put up quicker, and more forced, shots than I’m used seeing him take.
Marshall did continue to make some nice feeds tonight, and I still feel he will be a smart and effective player once he gets to UNC. His D and ability to create his own shot and finish have always been listed as his areas for improvement.
Marshall needs to improve his leg strength, unusual to see a 5 star point guard that can’t finish at the rim. Also, either Irving, Knight, Selby, and Joseph are extraordinarily fast or Marshall has a lot of work to do on his foot speed, but everyone has him rated as a 5 star and Roy gave him a scholarship after his sophomore year, so maybe All Star games just aren’t the best forums for him to display his abilities.
Barnes again proved who the best player in the class is. How did knight get any number 1 is beyond me. Barnes would be drafted this year
“never was a fan of JAY williams,, he was a cry baby in college…”
well that “cry baby” kicked the ever living sh&t out of UNC during his 3 years in Durham, and spare me the “Doh Years” crapola
Need to remember Larry Drew will have more options to go to next year ..true outside scorers which will only open up the inside game… Barnes abilities as well as Bullock’s will only help Larry .
Tarheels will be fine with Larry being at the helm…
Marshall isnt a me first player, hard to make an impact in these games.
Bullock needs to start, sorry dex, but bullock taking ur spot.
“Tarheels will be fine with Larry being at the helm…”
Needs to be because from what I’ve seen I don’t think Roy is going to be handing the keys (how many times did Dykes use that analogy?) to any freshman point guard that is arriving on campus this upcoming season……
And we could of had that “cry baby”, smh we had curry.
“Bullock needs to start, sorry dex, but bullock taking ur spot.”
I agree it is a likely scenario, but instead of us anointing starting spots like we did this time last summer, how about we see who earns it.
He did, but he was a cry baby what dukie isn’t!!!! ok being harsh sorry..
Need to say more he is commenting basketball , not playing..
you going to tell me he did not cry baby alot while playing at Duke……come on..
I am going to hold out till nov. Before I make a judgement on marshal, hopefull he isn’t another in the line of frasor more savy than good.
If Dykes had used an appropriate automobile, that the keys were being handed to at Duke, then I wouldn’t have minded so much.
Irving being handed the keys to a Ferrari? More like a Taurus.
If dook is a taurus going into next year, unc is a 86 Buick la sabre
After this season, if they can play like Jay Williams did at Duke, I’ll take as many cry babies in Carolina Blue as possible.
Where are they projecting ed to go in the draft? Top ten? Or late first round.
I like that line.. and agree Roy is not handing the keys to a freshman point guard. He will Stick with Larry.. He did all last season and believe he will next season as well..
^^^^ Can’t disagree with that – for now.
Pick any ride you like……Duke is not a Ferrari though.
Maybe by the end of next year UNC will be a tricked-out, bored and stroked ’86 La Sabre with a turbo added.
Duke without Singler and if Carolina had Davis, both would have been Taurus’s in good condition and low mileage.
Time will tell who starts , better yet who earns the starting roles as someone above stated.. Out of the 3 freshman coming in next season, still believe Barnes is a starter,, how can you not?? Barnes is the type of player that will make an impact all around; on and off the court..
Those announcers.. Dukie fans…ya think!!!! come on..
Ferrari..please sooooo duke fans those announcers.. Please
scl11,
Jay Williams did kick the crap out of UNC for three years. So did a lot of other teams. It has been well-documented.
Tyler Hansbrough went 6-2 against the Dookies over four years, I believe Williams’ teams went 6-1 against us. I won’t spare you the “Doh Years” crap, but I will raise my glass to the moment where K’s (and that day isn’t so far away) replacement gets dumped by 35 points to a well-oiled Roy Williams machine.
And for the record, as an announcer, Jay Williams is just putrid. A Dook homer (Williams) and a UK homer (Dykes) wiping drool from each other’s chins as they salivate about their beloved teams/coaches, while a UNC recruit dominates the game (which 90% of the audience is paying attention to) is pretty damn cool.
Also, Dean Smith owned Dook, just as he owned Kentucky…not a tear on defeat, not a tear in victory. But yeah, Jay Williams could cry all he wanted…and he did cry…A LOT. He never saw a no-foul call he didn’t like. I personally loved that moment in the 2001 title game where he scaled the back of Arizona’s Jason Gardner and did not get called for a foul.
Jason Williams…Jay…whatever…ugh.
A couple of months ago, before LD2 had his end-of-year improvement, I sort of hoped Marshall might be good enough to start. I feel much better about Larry now, and realize Kendall will likely come off the bench.
That’s the way it really should be in a system that is building, class by class, and reasonably appropriate for Kendall’s overall abilities at this point. This still should give the PG effectiveness a boost in any case.
I was wondering why Dykes was so so Kentucky explains that….
ugh is right……………
and he cried baby on that no call…. I was hoping that Arizona would beat them in 2001 ..with Jeferson, Arenas Walton ..Zona had a great team that year..but they didn’t ..oh well.
Ty lawson never lost to dook or an acc tourney game.
Amazing 4 nba playoff games today and a Tar Heel playing in each one. Staying up late to watch ty.
* ty buries 3 on cue, wish he could get his hands on the #5.
watching the Denver game lawson just hit a three..he is too funny his swagger and all.. good little Ty..
Ty knows there is a dukie on the other bench. Boozer..another dukie cry baby, …LOL just kidding..
There ty’s speed and finish. Making an impact in thr playoffs as a rookie. Impressive.
uhhhh, I thought Taurus’ was four cylinder while the Le Sabre had a Corvette engine?
Once again I have reiterate myself, Marshall just does not have the speed to run Roy’s system. If anyone watched today’s game they saw that. He is good at a half-court game, but he cannot bring up the ball at a Lawson/Felton speed or for that matter finish around the basket. I know that he is an “unselfish” player and all that, but UNC was successful as a team because we had scoring PGs who could run the show in a fast paced system, and in case of Lawson sometimes just take over a game. Marshall is just not fit that profile and that was on display. I do tend to agree that maybe offering any player at the sophomore year is a little too early, but the onus is on him to live up to expectations especially since he will be playing against a faster PG in Kyrie Irving at Duke and Ryan Harrow at NC State. But it will also be a test for the coaching staff, because they have to fit their system around the limitations of their players.
^Disagree for all the reasons that have been talked about on this subject ad nauseum.
Harrison Barnes and Irving were named the MVPs of the games for their squads.
The last couple of minutes of that game were fun to watch.
“so maybe All Star games just aren’t the best forums for him to display his abilities”
This. Let’s not forget, Greg Paulus looked awesome in the 2005 McD’s ASG. Marshall has universally been praised for being (by far) the best passer and having the best vision in the class. It really doesn’t surprise me that a player like this needs more than a few practices to get in-sync with his teammates. From everything that I’ve read, when he was on the AAU circuit, where he had both equal talent around him and a chemistry with those players, he was a special player.
I didn’t read every single post, so maybe somebody covered this, but we have to give Kendall Marshall a partial pass. The kid’s been in pain for days, waiting to have the tooth or teeth pulled after this game. Did that affect his play? Maybe not. He’s that young. But maybe.
^Great point, CM, about reading too much into these all-star games, good or bad. (As an example, Brandon Knight hasn’t set the world on fire in the three games I’ve seen him play, but I think he’s going to be an outstanding PG……much better than how he’s looked so far)
I realize, after a season where athletic limitations of some UNC players were highlighted, there is a tendency to look at a player like Kendall Marshall and focus on his possible limitations – Average speed (though fast enough to effectively operate in an up tempo game), not being a strong finisher, defense. (You could say that about a lot of high school players, as far as D is concerned)
But all these things have been known of Kendall, and have always been on his scouting report, yet he still makes, and plays in, these elite games for a reason.
I’d prefer to focus on the things he does bring to the table: Excellent passing, high BBall IQ and instincts, ability to see the court, feel for the game, good attitude and leadership qualities. (Do we realize how good that all sounds?) If he pans out in these areas alone, this will be a marked improvement for UNC’s point guard depth, and a welcomed benefit for the team.
^^Good point on the wisdom teeth.
As for the idea that Marshall isn’t fast enough to play Roy’s system, that completely ignores the fact that Roy never had a PG at KU like Lawson (or even Felton) and those teams were always among the elite teams, if not THE elite team, in terms of scoring and pace. Some will argue that he never won a title at KU, but he had teams that were within a whisper of a title, and others that probably “should have” won a title, and it wasn’t PG play that led to their demise.
I put “should have” in quotes because the reality is, there is too much luck involved in winning a title to ever say a team absolutely “should have won” a title. Otherwise, Dean Smith “should” have won more than two titles. K “should” have won at least 3 more titles (1986, 1999, 2004, 2006), and at the same time, he shouldn’t have won in 1991 or 2010. UK “should” have won in 1995 and 1997, but probably shouldn’t have won in 1998.
All one can really ask for when you are building a system is to have teams that legitimately COULD win a title, and Roy’s system has done that with PGs like Kendall Marshall.
Here are a couple of reports on Marshall from ESPN, who has actually been one of the harder “graders” of Marshall:
“January, 2010: The tag as “the best passer/playmaker” in the 2010 class has long been the consensus of most evaluators when describing Marshall’s game; even the casual fan can recognize this kid’s talent for delivering the ball with amazing creativity and accuracy. There is no doubt that he will have a major impact on North Carolina’s fast-breaking offense as his vision and skill set will have teammates salivating over the prospects of being rewarded for running the floor in transition. An area of concern that I am sure will be addressed and worked on will be his consistency from the perimeter. Until he can prove that he can consistently knock down open jumpers, teams will be able to game plan to take away his strengths. Opponents will sag on ball defenders to contain the dribble and there will be less help defense which will force Marshall to have to make a play. If he does improve his consistency look out, he becomes an almost un-guardable Jason Kidd-like weapon.”
“May, 2009: Marshall is one of the unique individuals (Jason Kidd is another that comes to mind) that has the ability to dribble with the ball as fast as he can run without it. He may not have blazing speed (he is deceptively quick), but he more than makes up for it with his ball quickness. It is rare in today’s game of scoring point guards that a player at the position can impact a game to the extent that he does without having to shoot the ball. It is refreshing to watch his teammates sprint the floor in transition knowing that there is a good chance that their efforts will be rewarded with a scoring pass from Marshall. He has great court vision, has every pass in the book and he delivers it with perfect timing. He needs to cut down on his turnovers and he also needs to be a more consistent free throw shooter in end of game situations. He is a confident leader that will fit in well with UNC’s transition style of play.”
“April, 2009: Every player in the country would want to play with Kendall Marshall. This lefty completely dominates the game by passing the basketball. He is the best passer that I have seen in the class of 2010. Marshall has great size, a strong handle and unbelievable court vision. He makes excellent decisions in heavy traffic and he delivers the ball to teammates while they are open not after the defense recovers. In transition he advances the ball up the floor on the pass or dribble. He plays with an open mind as he probes the defense and makes it pay as soon as he recognizes a mistake. He has leadership skills and the basketball IQ to run the team. He understands how to get open by using his size and providing the passer with a target hand when being denied. He passes over and around traps and double teams and he is great at using pass and shot fakes to move the defense out of position. He scores on mid range pull ups and slashes in the lane. He must work to improve his perimeter shooting but can make an open shot with needed time and space. At the end of the game he wants the ball in his hands and has the confidence and toughness to make late game free throws. He is an average athlete and not the speedy lead guard that Carolina fans are accustomed but his feel for the game make him a special player. He will have an opportunity to average double figures in assists with the talent he will play with in Chapel Hill. He reminds me of former NBA point guard Mark Jackson.”
Duke recruited a PG who will be ready to start, and have an impact, from day 1. UNC did not. That is not encouraging. Harrison Barnes however is very encouraging. Bullock (to me) is still an unknown – he still hasn’t distinguish himself in the three summer games, but he also hasn’t had the ball very much.
^Carolina recruited a SF , the #1 player, (away from Duke, no less) who is ready to start and have an impact from day 1. Would you trade Harrison Barnes for Kyrie Irving?
______
Yes, it would be nice to think Roy could recruit, and get, the very best player at every single position (I guess 2 out of 3′s not bad.)……that’s not the way it usually works though. Why don’t we wait ’til next season gets going to decide the strengths and weaknesses of 2010′s recruiting class, instead of basing too much on these rather insignificant all-star games.
^I did say that Barnes was encouraging didn’t I? However, the PG recruiting trend for Roy has had, so far, 1 hit (Lawson) and a lot of misses (Quentin Thomas, Bobby Frasor and Larry Drew), so there is reason to be concerned.
^Yeah, but Roy’s recruiting record with 5-star (top 25) PGs (Vaughn, Hinrich, Miles, Lawson, and now Marshall) has been sublime. There is an ENORMOUS difference between a 5-star player and a 4-star player. We need to compare apples to apples.
^Ok – I hope you’re right, but so far Selby, Knight and Irving have looked more like 5-star PGs then Marshall has. But it might not even matter. Right now Barnes looks so good, we might be able to just put the ball in his hands and ask him to run the show.
CB74 keeps his streak alive of bashing Marshal in any thread his name is brought up in. Ty is amazing it’s hard to recruit one of the best pg in UNC history everytime. Cota was a great player, and leads UNC In assists but wasn’t lightning fast. Marshall isn’t going to be as crucial next yr as Barnes and Bullock, but doesn’t need to.
“Right now Barnes looks so good, we might be able to just put the ball in his hands.”
No question there, and fortunately, that is what Marshall is lauded for being the best at. The way I see it, I’m not expecting Marshall to be what Lawson or Felton were as juniors, but there is no reason to think that he can’t be what Ed Cota was as a freshman and sophomore.
Here’s a Washington Post article, from yesterday, on Kendall Marshall.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/16/AR2010041604638.html?nav=emailpage
Wayne you confuse my criticism of Roy sticking to his ‘system’ with bashing Marshall. Marshall would be a great fit for any team that plays deliberate half-court sets, but that is not UNC. Ed Cota did not play for Roy Williams, he played for coach Guthridge. I don’t think Cota could have played with Roy. Our teams are so heavy on PG playing at a certain speed, that last year the only games we lost were when either Ty was not playing well or was not on the court. That says something about our reliance on speedy PG. Year before that we were able to win a few games without Ty because Q refused to speed up his game much against the wishes of Roy. Marshall may not be crucial next year, but Roy’s system revolves around his PG, and unless that changes this year the struggles will continue. Now I can make the case that Roy offered a scholarship early without evaluating the rest of the class, because there are quite a few PG’s this year who might not be as good a passer as Kendall, but can play at Roy’s speed. Kendall is a classic NBA PG, a ball-handler who can execute the pick and roll like no other, he reminds me a lot of Chauncey Billups (minus the scoring ability which he needs to develop) and that is very good company. Does that fit into Roy’s system, I don’t know, but I doubt that.
^Roy did have pgs at KU that didn’t fit in the Lawson and Felton category as has been mentioned. You don’t have to be blazing fast to play in an uptempo offense.
Roy didn’t recruit Felton, so of all roys pg recruits. Lawson would be the exception, not the norm. Just like he hit gold with Tyler, the same can be said about Tywon.
All I’m saying is give Marshall till the ACC starts before u condemn his skills. He doesn’t strike me as a me first player, and will fit well into Roys system.
Not everyone has to score,
Maybe not Lawson and Felton, but all his successful teams that made it past the first 2 rounds had fast PGs, Adonis Jordan and Kirk Hinrich were plenty fast. Unfortunately, Roy is the victim of his system. His gameplan has become faster over the years and now it’s in warp speed. Just look at this year, when they were playing at warp speed it was turnover central. During the NIT, he slowed things quite a bit acknowledging the limitations of his team. Now what needs to be seen is if he does the same next year.
Not everyone has to score?? In this day and age of college basketball if your primary ball-handler, or for that matter anyone of your starting 5 is not a scorer or a scoring threat, your team is in for a lot of pain.
^ really dook won a championship with only 3 guys scoring. We won in 05 and Jackie never scored. Pt/ counterpoint.
^^Yeah, b/c Zoubek and Thomas where such scoring forces. Same with Jackie Manuel. Craig Forth was a black hole for Syracuse in 2003.
Edit: Damn, that’s 2x that miW22 has beat me to the punch! I’m getting slow in my old age…
Another yeAr of bashing kids that don’t live up to our expectations. Last yeAr was an enigma. We turned it over all the time bc ( no offense) we sucked as a offensive team, stats proved that. Shooters are more important that speed next year. And a player like barnes is more critical to our success than any one of the so called fast pg aval. Roy recognized that and went hard after barnes and got him. Irving would be greAt if we already had scorers, but first things first we have to put the ball in the basket.
Are you kidding me? yes three guys for Duke did the bulk of scoring but no team in their right mind will leave Zoubek or Thomas unguarded under the basket this year. In 2005 Jackie Manuel did not score but much of his playing time went to Marvin Williams, unless some of you people forgot about him already. But if we must, I have two words for you: Marcus Ginyard. In all our major tournament losses over three years, Marcus played more than 30 minutes per game but scored a grand total of 8 points in all games combined. So much for your point/counterpoint.
But to the point of your primary ball-handler not being a scorer, between 2005 and 2009 look at the scoring of the team. In all our major losses the primary ball-handler was shut down and scored in single digits. In the 2005 final Felton scored 17 points. Now look at Ty: Georgetown 2007, 5 pts; Kansas 2008, 9 points; Michigan State 2009, 21 pts. The numbers speak for themselves. You just cannot afford to have a primary ball-handler who is not a scoring threat and neither can you afford to have starter on the team who is incapable of scoring. I think people should have learned this lesson by now.
^
re you kidding me? yes three guys for Duke did the bulk of scoring but no team in their right mind will leave Zoubek or Thomas unguarded under the basket. Please stop trying to argue these guys as offensive threats, having to guard someone and leaving them completely open under the basket are two separate things. You have to game plan for Cryer, Smith, and Sunglare, the other two you just had to box out.
Dude, I dont know if you watched Dook play in the tourney, but there were plenty of times that Zoob and Wack Thomas, would get rebounds under the goal and throw the ball out for a three. William brought up the point that teams, didnt realize that zoob never looked for his shot, and went to guard him under the basket, leaving Cryer and Sunglare open from behind the arc.
We lost in to GT bc of a young team, Kansas falls on Roys feet for not having them ready for the game mentally. 09-10 was one of UNC best teams ever because all position could score double figures, that doesnt happen often.
You can have the all the fastest freshmen you want cb74, give me an experienced team that has been through the battles, we will beat you every time.
Experience is why we fell off this year, Experience is why Kentucky chocked in the tourney, and Experience is why that team in Durham got a banner for next year.
*Marvin subbed for Jawad not jackie, Jackie still played when Marvin was on the floor
“that completely ignores the fact that Roy never had a PG at KU like Lawson (or even Felton)”
Do you not recall Jacque Vaughn, but other than Vaughn, your statement is correct and probably the 50th time it has been made to C74, when his “Roy has to slow it down” soap box comes out of the woodwork on a weekly basis.
C74, we get it, Roy needs to run the Princeton offense with these slow plodding PGs and try to keep the games under 60pts. SMH
“Cryer and Sunglare” LMAO
Look I’m as skeptical about Marshall’s ability as any 5 star point guard that has come into the college game since Paulus, but it has nothing to do with his ability to play at Roy’s desired pace, and I do not have the time to list the reasons why “speedy PGs” is not an issue in Roy’s system for the 100th time. Unless Marshall has a broken leg with a kickstand, he’ll be just fine playing at Roy’s desired pace, his strength, foot speed on defense, ability to finish at the rim, and his jump shot are more pressing concerns imhop.
^Yeah, Vaughn was definitely a jet. Wasn’t the scorer that Lawson or Felton were, but he could go. He was basically Ed Cota with Ty Lawson speed.
“I have seen Kendall in the winter for O’Connell and during summer on the All-American circuit,” DeMatha Coach Mike Jones said. “You get a true appreciation when you see both. He is the best pure point guard in high school. He is incapable of making the selfish play. He will always make the right play, shoot or pass. He plays the game the right way and will go far.”
“Unfortunately, Roy is the victim of his system. His gameplan has become faster over the years and now it’s in warp speed. Just look at this year, when they were playing at warp speed it was turnover central. During the NIT, he slowed things quite a bit acknowledging the limitations of his team. Now what needs to be seen is if he does the same next year.”
___
I don’t know what you consider to be “warp speed” but I don’t think UNC really falls in that category. VMI, who has led the nation in possessions per game (PPG) in several recent years, does with 85 PPG this year, and a whopping 90.7 PPG in ’07.
Actually UNC has fairly consistently fallen between a low of 72.2 PPG in ’06 to to a high of 75.7 PPG in ’05 & ’09 (only a 5% variation) since Roy Williams became head coach.
In the five NIT games this year, UNC averaged 73.2 possessions per game (from a low of 68 possessions in the UAB game, to a high of 82 in the Rhode Island game) which was slightly higher than their season average of 72.6 possessions per game. So the average pace of play was hardly different in the NIT versus the rest of the year.
I believe the team should do very well at this pace next year – reducing TO’s and being more efficient on offense will greatly help – and it’s obviously the style of play Roy prefers, as apparently do many of his recruits.
Here is the main reason why even though Marshall hasn’t set the world on fire, I’m really not worried about him being a very good player for us next season and beyond:
It’s an all star game and everyone is going one on one to showcase their offensive skills. So the shooters and scorers are going to stand out. All other skills in these games are not seen, discussed, cared about, etc. If you’re a freak athlete or a great one on one player you’re going to get pub in these types of events. Kendall Marshall isn’t any of those things.
If any of you have watched tape on Marshall in high school or in summer camps, his ability to get everyone on the floor involved in good situations is displayed full force.
In these types of all star games Kendall pushing the issue is him trying to make a perfect pass because that’s his best chance at standing out. I can’t blame him I mean if it were me I’d want to stand out and have fun just like everyone else, so I’d try and overuse my biggest strength and its more difficult to show your passing ability and vision when everyone is standing around watching you dribble and no real offense is being run.
With practice and developing chemistry with the team that Marshall will be on that actually matters he will be an impact player. Whether it’s running a type of “second unit” or spelling Drew, he will give a lot of guys a lot of opportunities to put points on the board.
Could we agree on something? Can we agree to not bash a player or judge them incapable of carrying the video equipment or whatever until they are actually on the team. I mean could we at least wait until the ten minute mark of the exhibition game before we throw Kendall or anyone else under the bus? I mean you guys gave the Wears at least half a season before deciding they should be playing for Northern Iowa so I think a five star recruit should be given a little more leeway.
Agreed.
Every argument I’ve seen on here in regards to Roy and Kendall have some measure of validity to it. The thing is to me, we do have personelle that have varying capabilities on our team. Also, stats don’t always reflect a team’s speed, or what tempo they are successful at. More eyeball effect is needed here.
Kendall Marshall seems like a decent kid, and at least has some heighth working for him. From what I have seen, which is limited to youtube videos of his games, he does lack the type of speed that Roy has a propensity to prefer. As does Drew. Drew, however, seemed to pick his pace up at the end, and found a way to be more successful at finishing at the rim. Let’s hope HIS progress continues, which may be the more valid issue we need to be discussing here.
Being how it is we do have a rather odd mixture of talent and strenghts on our team, my worry is going to be more of a “Can Roy manage to utilize the strengths on this team, and hide some defeciencies through his style of play.” Not so much of “Can Roy recognize that Marshall is slower than Lawson”.
We have a lot of other folks on this team other than Kendall, and it is really going to take a hard evaluation to have a plan of how we are going to use all of our players to manage a successful season. I mean, maybe Roy has a first tier squad that he belives is the best, and the fastest, while utilizing strenghts of the others for the 2nd unit. Who knows, but I have concerns that greatly outweigh the speed of Marshall. Like I said, Roy probably knows this, and knows what player to use on what squad, and what tempo.
I have to believe this season has taught Roy some lessons on personelle strengths and weaknesses. Same could be said for the players.
One thing we are ignoring when we are talking about Kendall Marshall is his defensive ability? That is one thing I would like to know about. Despite being ACC of the Year, there were numerous times where the opposing point guard lit up Lawson.