Making the switch

Now that the Carolina basketball season is officially over, after a disappointing Not Invited Tournament championship game, I'd like to assess the season. I'm sure most fans were disappointed by this season, and maybe rightfully so, but I suppose I'm an optimist and want to look at the bright side of things.

I've already discussed the future for the club, which is shades-wearingly bright. If there is any one thing to take away from this season, it's that the potential lineup for the coming years is stacked like Jenga.

But I've also learned some things about the current roster that I think are important. In no particular order:

1. Will Graves can shoot the lights out, whatever that means – I don't think that metaphor is necessarily based on logic. He can do some other things fairly well, but he doesn't always seem to be paying that much attention or showing that much effort. I always imagined when critics claimed that UNC didn't play hard, they were talking about Graves – though he certainly steps up his effort in clutch time.
   
2. John Henson is a much better 4 than a 3. After a long string of injuries, Henson started seeing a lot more time in the post. From that point on, his shot-altering abilities stood out like Cameron Diaz in The Mask. His offense also picked up, since he looked a lot more comfortable four feet from the basket than he looked 14 feet from the basket.
   
3. Larry Drew II is a good but not great player. Drew has taken a lot of criticism for this team's failings, and I suppose he should since he's usually the one running it. So, I don't suppose I'm breaking any news with that comment. But, here's my assessment, something I haven't heard much of and also something based exclusively on my watching games on TV: I don't think he understands his limitations yet. I don't think he's as skilled or as fast as a lot of the players he's compared to right now (Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson, other ACC guards, even Dexter Strickland who I'll get to in a minute), but I wonder if he gets that. In the criticism of the team and of Drew, I've heard a lot about decision making, but from what I've noticed – again, watching on TV – Drew isn't necessarily making bad basketball decisions; he's just making decisions that lead to plays – passes, layups, shots – that he may not be skilled enough to make. Once he comes to gripes with his limitations (based on his competition), I think Drew will be a very good point guard. I think he compares favorably to Bobby Frasor who, again, wasn't that quick or skilled but made a lot of important plays for UNC. Incidentally, I think both Drew and Frasor would make very good coaches.
   
4. Dexter Strickland is really, really fast. Again, something I've heard about Drew is that he's a fast player, for better or worse. If Drew is fast, then Strickland is the speed of light. Maybe it would be more meaningful to say that Strickland is quicker than Drew. Either way, both of them can push the ball, which brings me to my final point.
   
5. Roy Williams will always want to run. At certain points in the season, I questioned this philosophy, considering his team had an enormous and enormously deep front line. I wondered if he had the personnel to run his team the way he wanted to. But in the NIT, admittedly with a couple of the big guys in suits, Williams' Speed Racer-style seemed to be back and working pretty well, with a few hiccups. Again, looking to the future, I think the addition of three really skilled back-court guys with the incoming class will work well with the system that finally seemed to be working again at the end of the of the season.
   

Now that that's out of my system, I expect to start blogging about baseball again soon. I'll even get it started with a baseball QotW.

Question of the Week:

What is your bold prediction for this MLB season?

My take: I want to predict that Roy Halladay will win 25 games with the Phillies, but I've heard that prediction about 25 times on ESPN, so I'm going a different route. In fact, I'm going in the exact opposite direction. I predict that Zack Greinke wins fewer than 12 games. With just a single quality season and some serious inconsistency on his résumé, I'll pass on Greinke's repeat of last season's ridiculous numbers. Plus, he's on a team that's only averaging about 74 wins this decade.