The much-rumored departure from UNC basketball of Sean May,
Raymond Felton, and Marvin Williams came to pass with a Friday press conference
where all three said they 'd be going to the NBA and most likely with an
agent. So next season, their top seven scorers are gone and they obviously
will fall off. So what else happens?
Well, UNC has some things to figure out, that's for
sure. Tyler Hansbrough is an intense, competitive kid, but he's still
going to be a
freshman. And most importantly, they don't have a sure-fire point guard,
something UNC almost always has. Think about it: who's their worst PG ever? Adam
Boone? He wasn't a nightmare, he was just slow.
Now, though, most likely Quentin Thomas or freshman Bobby
Frasor will have to run things. Thomas didn't do a lot to distinguish
himself down the stretch, and that's putting it mildly.
UNC's press conference has come and gone with the anticipated result: Sean May, Raymond Felton, and Marvin Williams are all going pro. Probably most
people didn't expect they would all three be seeking agents. The conventional wisdom was that May would keep his options open, but he was pretty
emphatic about it.
All that aside, what's going to happen next year? Well, they'll have an impressive Tyler Hansbrough, two very athletic players in Marcus Ginyard and
Danny Green, and Bobby Frasor, who has drawn comparisons with Trajan Langdon as a shooter. The holdover players aren't that good though, at least
not statistically. The walkons are not listed, and since he only got 17 minutes this past season, maybe Damon Grant shouldn't be either.
The holdovers got 33.5 mpg, leaving 166.5 to be filled. They return 7.8 ppg (remember we aren't counting walkons), 4.7 rpg, and racked up 105 turnovers in
mostly garbage time, Noel excepted.
|---TOTAL---| |---3-PTS---| |----REBOUNDS----|
## Player GP-GS Min--Avg FG-FGA Pct 3FG-FGA Pct FT-FTA Pct Off Def Tot Avg PF FO A TO Blk Stl Pts Avg
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
34 David Noel......... 37-0 627 16.9 57-104 .548 7-20 .350 22-41 .537 36 62 98 2.6 54 1 56 33 11 34 143 3.9
03 Reyshawn Terry..... 32-0 143 4.5 26-48 .542 12-20 .600 9-13 .692 8 14 22 0.7 17 0 7 15 7 9 73 2.3
41 Byron Sanders...... 26-0 77 3.0 10-22 .455 0-0 .000 2-10 .200 11 12 23 0.9 5 0 7 4 1 1 22 0.8
11 Quentin Thomas..... 37-1 234 6.3 10-22 .455 1-3 .333 7-10 .700 1 27 28 0.8 28 0 47 48 0 12 28 0.8
25 Damion Grant....... 6-0 17 2.8 0-6 .000 0-0 .000 0-0 .000 3 1 4 0.7 3 0 0 5 0 0 0 0.0
As you can see, there's not much there there. But aside from Noel and Terry, this is Roy Williams'
team now, lock stock, and stinking barrel.
This won't be a team which can run over people, but they won't be that bad. If nothing else, they can use Ginyard, Green, and Noel to put out a very capable
defensive threesome. That could be a pretty dynamic force.
But the real bugaboo for the Baby Heels will be their point guard play. There is no one who screams PG now, and that's going to be a real problem if
someone doesn't
step up.
But all that said, they aren't going to be terrible or at least not as bad as everyone thinks. They should still finish over .500, at the least, and their young players will
develop through the years. Worst case scenario? Or almost worst anyway? Another "3rd Place NIT" banner in the
rafters!