In retrospect, it might have made more sense to make this, my 101st blog post, the "let's take a nostalgic and educational look back at my first 100 posts" blog. Then I could have named it "BISdom 101" as a nod to introductory level college courses everywhere.
Today, UNC's men's basketball team dropped from the top 25 rankings for the first time since January 2006 after three straight losses. Of course, that '05-'06 team – much like this '09-'10 team – played the year after winning a national championship and losing a lot of national championship players. And then the freshmen of that '05-'06 team grew up to win a national championship.
So, while it may be simple enough to pout about a down year in Carolina basketball, including recent losses to in-state rival Wake Forest and perennial-punching-bag Clemson, it's also fun to do a little historically educated projecting as to what this current team might grow up to be.
Thanks to an experienced squad and a few early exits in the summer, this Tar Heels team has very few contributing upperclassmen. In fact, in the next two years, UNC is only guaranteed to lose three players who play any regular minutes: Marcus Ginyard, Deon Thompson, and Will Graves.
After that, only a few players (particularly Ed Davis) could be reasonably expected to leave before the '11-'12 season. There are, after all, some benefits to having good but not great players like Larry Drew II, the Wear twins, and Tyler Zeller.
But, just for fun, I'm going to assume that every Carolina player does – as they all say – actually want to graduate, and none leave early. In the '11-'12 season, Roy Williams would be looking at a rotation that looks something like this:
C Ed Davis (SR)
PF Travis Wear (JR)
SF Harrison Barnes (ESPN's #1 recruit for 2010)
SG Dexter Strickland (JR)
PG Larry Drew II (SR)
B1 Tyler Zeller (SR C)
B2 John Henson (JR SF/PF)
B3 David Wear (JR SF/PF)
B4 Leslie McDonald (JR SG)
B5 Reggie Bullock (ESPN's #3 SG for 2010)
B6 Kendall Marshall (ESPN's #6 PG for 2010)
B7 James McAdoo – no relation (ESPN's #1 PF for 2011)
B8 P.J. Hairston (ESPN's #4 SG for 2011)
B9 – just for fun – Justin Watts (SR SG)
But seriously, there's almost no way – considering early exits, transfers, and decommits, not to mention an NCAA Division I men's basketball scholarship limit of 13 full scholarships – that this roster actually materializes, so what's the point of all this hopeful prophesying?
Well, for me at least, it's nice to find a bit of a silver lining in a period where even a win at NC State is questionable.
Event of the Week:
UNC at NC State, tomorrow at 9.
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So I'm not gonna lie, I forgot about the blog for a while even though I have it in my bookmarks toolbar. My bad.
ReplyDeleteYa'll (UNC) will be good (I guess I should say great, you're still good now) the next few years but I don't see the foundation for a championship team unlike the last time you weren't ranked.
Dunno how State beak Duke, they suck. I guess maybe because we roughed them up even though we lost by 20.
I'm not entirely sure that Wake would be doing better right now with James Johnson and Jeff Teague or not. I don't think Ish would be playing as well as he is if Jeff was still here. Def playing better as a team right now but we're relying a lot on freshmen which is iffy on the road and come tourney time. We shall see.
ACC basketball is awesome.
Since I was personally at the Event of the week I'll go ahead and let everyone know it was freaking Sweet. Unfortunately a Carolina Win is probably the event of the week any time it happens this year, because they have been suuuuuucking lately.
ReplyDeleteACC basketball is awesome....Ha chuck blogpologized.