Welcome to the 2010-11 basketball season.
It has been suggested that when Harrison Barnes opted to sign his letter of intent with UNC last November, it put UNC under a "curse" for which we have all endured a myriad of crap from bad basketball to an NCAA probe into football. Now, I don't believe in curses but if that were the case does Cody Zeller's choosing Indiana over UNC pretty much bookend the whole deal? Curse over right? We'll see I guess.
Over the past couple of weeks we have examined this team from top to bottom in an effort to get a grasp on what we can reasonably expect from them. The general consensus is this is a good team. Are they a top ten team right now? No. However they have the pieces to be very good. The ceiling for this team will rise or fall based on point guard play, consistent perimeter shooting and staying healthy. I imagine we will be debating point guard play from now until Christmas but that position is a lynchpin for any college basketball team. If you get solid PG play with minimal turnovers and great facilitation of the offense, your chances of success go up. If not, well, let's not go there right now. Good point play, some three pointers and solid healthy post play, especially from Tyler Zeller puts this team on the right path. Oh yeah, some guy named Harrison Barnes has to be everything we hope and more.
How does the THF crew here think it will all turn out? Here are our predictions as well as one from Ken Pomeroy
Doc
Regular season record: 22-8
ACC Record: 11-5
ACC regular season finish: 2nd
ACC Tournament: Finals
NCAA Tournament: #3 seed, Elite Eight
C.Michael
Regular season record: 24-6
ACC Record: 12-4
ACC regular season finish: 2nd
ACC Tournament: Champion
NCAA Tournament: #2 seed, Elite Eight
THF
Regular season record: 25-5
ACC Record: 12-4
ACC regular season finish: 2nd
ACC Tournament: Finals
NCAA Tournament: #2 seed, Elite Eight
Ken Pomeroy
Regular season record: 19-9
ACC Record: 9-7
Happy season opening day to everyone. Go Heels!