UNC Basketball: Who’s going to step up for the Tar Heels in 2016-2017?
By Sam Lawrence
With the departure of seniors Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson, there are multiple candidates that could step up and lead the team in the 2016-2017 season
Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson heroically took our Tar Heels to the championship game last season through their steady leadership and explosive offense.
These two seniors led the rest of the team on and off the court, bringing the players an abundance of success in their post-season run. With Paige and Johnson continuing their careers in the NBA, Carolina is looking for new players that can fill that leadership position.
Some obvious possibilities are rising seniors Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks, and Nate Britt. As seniors, these three possess the experience that a good leader must have.
Hicks averaged just under 9 points per game while playing only 18 minutes per game last season.
He also tied Johnson for the highest field goal percentage on the team.
Hicks had a huge jump from sophomore to junior year, improving in just about every aspect of his game.
With his play off of the bench, Hicks won the ACC Sixth man of the year award at the end of the season.
With three years of playing alongside them, Hicks understands how he fits in with the rest of the players and what he needs to do in order to create a successful playing environment.
Meeks has started for North Carolina for the past two years, so it is obvious that he has experience and that he knows how he fits in with the team.
The biggest concern with Meeks is his productivity, which has dropped significantly from his sophomore to junior season. He averaged over two fewer points per game and one and a half fewer rebounds per game in his junior season than he did in his sophomore season.
Also, Meeks got to the charity stripe 50% more in his sophomore season than he did in his junior season. Despite his setbacks in the last year, Meeks has been putting in work in the offseason and will definitely start for the Heels this upcoming season.
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Britt is a 6-foot-1 guard who hasn’t seen too much playing time in his college career, averaging about 15 minutes per game last season as a junior.
He averaged just over 5 points per game as well, not being very aggressive offensively. As a freshman, Britt averaged 20 minutes per game, 5 more than his sophomore and junior averages. Despite his limited playing time, Britt does have experience with the team. Although he is calm and collected, it does not seem that Britt has an alpha dog mentality.
This means that despite his experience, Britt will most likely not be the next leader due to his lack of offensive explosiveness.
Finally, we have Joel Berry II. This soon to be junior guard showed multiple attributes of a leader this previous season. Berry made a huge jump from his freshman to sophomore season, improving in all aspects of his game.
Specifically, Berry averaged nearly 13 points per game as the starting point guard for the Heels. While Brice and Marcus were the leaders of the team, Berry showed an alpha dog mentality through his strength and quick paced offense.
Although there are many candidates for this leadership role, I believe that Joel Berry will take it because of his decisiveness, strength, and quickness.
I predict his stat line will continue to improve as he becomes an upperclassmen and he will take that opportunity to lead the rest of the team to another successful season.
Although they may not take the leadership role, look for the rest of the listed players to have great seasons as they wind up their North Carolina careers.