A Look At The Tar Heel Freshman
By Matt Hamm
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The North Carolina Tar Heels have one of the top recruiting classes in the nation this season; again, Roy Williams has been on a roll as a recruiter. You can’t say enough about the job Williams did with this class, you’re asking high school superstars to come off the bench at UNC behind better players when they’ve never played with anyone better than themselves in their lives. Whatever Ol’ Roy says to those kids and their parents is golden, what I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall.
With a stacked roster this season and all 5 returning starters’ means this freshman class will be running with the number 2’s. Look for Williams to employ quick rotations to keep his players fresher than the opposition, using UNCs depth to its advantage as much as he can. The team will go with a primary rotation of three big men with Junior John Henson and Senior Tyler Zeller starting, freshman James McAdoo is the favorite to the be the first off the bench big man for the Heels. Fellow freshman Desmond Hubert and Jackson Simmons add extra depth but don’t figure to play much this season for the Tar Heels who had an NBA front line before they came in. Point Guard Stillman White comes in as an emergency PG and will play behind Kendall Marshall and Dexter Strickland but should get some minutes at some point in the season, he fills a vital role due to the teams lack of a true backup PG.
Page 2: A look at each UNC Freshman that will play a role in this years championship run
PJ Hairston and James McAdoo are 5 star recruits that could have been starters almost anywhere else in the country. Hairston comes in known for his long range shooting, with a big body at 6-5 210 Hairston is an underrated athlete. While McAdoo gets most of the attention Hairston will probably end up having just as big of an impact as the team’s first wing off the bench.
McAdoo rated in the top 5 of most recruiting circles finally committed to UNC after a year of speculation mostly because his uncle Bob McAdoo played for team decades ago. McAdoo bring a complete game out of high school, he had an NBA body with a polished post game, nice medium range jump shot and scary athleticism. Playing in a rotation with Zeller and Henson while occasionally stepping out to the small forward spot McAdoo adds a whole new dimension to this team. His addition reminds me a lot of the team adding Marvin Williams in 2005 and he was a great 6th man for the team before being drafted #2 in the NBA draft. This is a very similar situation and McAdoo may be a lottery pick in the NBA before he’s even ever a starter at UNC. Still Roy Williams will find a way to fit him into the rotation and utilize his skill set. Don’t be totally surprised if Williams decides to play Harrison Barnes at shooting guard and starts McAdoo at the SF spot. With his skills it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch and for Barnes it would be nothing more than a minor adjustment.
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