So Called “Experts” vs. UNC Basketball

Editors Note: With Great Pleasure I’d like to introduce you to Keeping It Heel’s Newest Staff Writer Ben Williams

I write this column for a couple of reasons, one reason is to ease my own anger, but more importantly to ease the anger of many UNC fans. If you are like me you pay a ton of attention to College Basketball in general not just UNC. Listening to the media these days ( I mean every major outlet not just ESPN) you would think we are back in 2010. For some reason this years UNC team has become every so called expert’s favorite team to criticize but don’t let any of this change your mind about the basketball team that calls Chapel Hill home.

Every expert in the world seems to have the same general rhetoric. I can’t count the number of times in the past month I have heard “This is a good, not elite UNC team” oh and if you didn’t know it yet “This team lost by 33 points at FSU.” Message received loud and clear, if your like me you get it already. Fact is while there is no excuse for what happened during a dark Saturday in Tallahassee but that was one game it does not and will not define this UNC team. Kansas lost to a mediocre Iowa State team,  Missouri lost to a terrible Oklahoma State team, UK lost to an Indiana team that is struggling, and OSU has lost to a less than spectacular Illinois team and Indiana as well. My point is, good teams can lose on the road, it happens, but for some reason UNC has been punished for it both vocally and in the rankings more than any other team in America.

This brings me to my defense that should help lower your blood pressure. There are a hand full of good teams in College Basketball this year but UNC is one of maybe two ELITE teams. The “experts” seems to point to that FSU loss and the loss of Dexter Strickland and say this is now a UNC team with too many flaws to be elite. What the experts fail to do is answer the following questions: How many teams could lose their “best” perimeter defensive player and starter and still blow out four straight teams? How many teams could lose a guy like Dexter Strickland and actually become a better team?

Yes I said what you may already know, UNC is better with Reggie Bullock in the starting line- up. Does it hurt depth absolutely, could Dex do some great things yes he could. That doesn’t change the fact that Reggie Bullock is just as good on the defensive end of the court (maybe better), he is a better shooter, and makes John Henson and Tyler Zeller better players by creating more space for the UNC big men down low. It is no coincidence that Tyler Zeller’s best games of the year have come with Reggie in the starting line up and the simple reason is it makes it harder for teams to crowd Tyler in the lane. (More in depth look at this development later in the week) The experts may or may not come to realize what I can plainly see, UNC 2.0 is better than the 1.0 version that existed just a month ago.

So just remember UNC fans, every time one of these so called “experts” tells you how many things are wrong with this UNC team, take solace in the fact that Roy Williams has more talent than anyone in America.  Roy starts five future NBA players, probably has two more on the bench, and after their wake up call at FSU has the most focused team in America. This may not equal going undefeated the rest of the way or even a National Title but it does equal an ELITE basketball team. So come March when the bandwagon is filling up again just remember you and I never jumped off and Duke no matter what anyone may tell you still SUCKS.

What do you think of the way the Tar Heels are treated in the national media Heel Nation?  Sound off and let us know in the comments section.  Don’t know how?  Having trouble?  We’ve got everything covered HERE

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