Now that it's definite that the Wear twins are leaving UNC, a couple of questions come up: first, how big is this, and second, would it be possible to find someone this late who could help?
The answer to the first question, at least for the upcoming season, depends to an extent on the answer to the second.
It won't be easy to find a big man this late, but it may not be impossible. All they really need is a guy who can defend and rebound for about 10 minutes a game. It would help if they could find someone built like former Maryland player Bambale Osby, but really, a guy who would do the dirty work would be fine. He wouldn't have to be built like the Incredible Hulk or have to be an All-Star.
Since the 60s, UNC has always liked to have two big man the lineup. Assuming that continues, that would mean starting John Henson and Tyler Zeller, neither of whom has proven to be particularly physical to date, and would leave no one in reserve.
Moreover, Zeller in particular has been injury prone.
So possibly it might be in UNC's interest to sit one and start a smaller pair of forwards -- say Harrison Barnes and Will Graves -- and bring one big man off the bench. That would be very fast, offensively oriented team, and hard to guard. Obviously you give up something, but you always do.
Where the loss of the Wear twins could really hurt is not so much this coming season as later. There's a real chance that next season, Carolina could lose their entire starting frontcourt early to the NBA. Barnes has made it clear that he'd like to get to the league quickly, and Henson, despite his slight frame, was mentioned as a candidate for this year's draft. Zeller, if he stays healthy, is a much more talented player than people have seen. Losing the first two would be a terrible blow; losing all three would be awful.
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