Player Scrutiny: Higher today than any other time in history
By Matt Haley
Growing up the amount of basketball on TV was limited to the game of the week and the ESPN’s had a few games available each week to follow some of the better teams in college basketball. The amount of coverage was less than today, but the quality of the product you were watching was higher than some of the contests that are televised each week in college basketball. I think I appreciated the moment more during this time in sports than I do now and i cannot decide if that is a product of my own development or has the saturation of games along with the internet effected how I view the players of today.
The NBA draft is approaching soon and the internet message boards are filled with who each team should draft and even here on keepingitheel.com we are scrutinizing each players game closely to see which team they best fit, and where they should be drafted. The draft process has evolved over the years where each player is over analyzed and their game has every weakness dissected, but sometimes we forget to ask the basic question which is “can this kid play?”
Harrison Barnes is the subject of most fans scrutiny of his game. For a player who has put up 40 points in an ACC ournament game, hit a bevy of winning shots for the Tar Heels you would think “he could not play a dead Indian in a cowboy movie (Quote by the legend Skip Prosser).” Harrison Barnes is a very good basketball player and like all good basketball players they have areas in their game they need to work on. In this age of college basketball you don’t have to be the next Michael Jordan to be drafted, just show glimpes of potential and you are sure to have your name called early on draft night.
During the season I could be as hard on Harrison as anyone, but now that he is preparing for the NBA let us not forget he is a Tar Heel. If there were message boards 30 years ago would we be saying the same things about Michael Jordan. That he needs to be more consistant with his outside game, that he has talent to average 30, but he only averages 19 a game. Would Brad Daugherty have heard whispers of not being strong enough, or what would have been said of JR Reid when he left early. My point is these players are not just players getting ready for the NBA, they are UNC players and everyone in the rest of the country is finding a reason for them to fail in the NBA. Why do Tar Heel fans need to add to this. Providing constructive criticism is one thing, but reading some of the comments about Barnes you would think he was the mirror image to Larry Drew II.
We need Barnes and the rest of this group to be successful on the next level because the amount of Tar Heels lighting the NBA up has diminished faster than a pack of pocket protectors at Krzyzewski-Ville over in Durham. The verdict is still out on Lawson, Ellington, Green and Hansbrough. Williams shows promise, but then falters when you least expect him to. Brandon Wright has not fullfilled the lofty expectations placed on him as a lottery pick. Jamison and Carter are aging and Felton is the only one remaining from the 2005 championship group that was recruited by Matt Doherty. All of these players did great things at UNC and we should be thankful they are Tar Heels who gave us some great memories. Playing in the NBA is a different game and I hope every player who leaves UNC for the NBA is successful. The truth more will fail at that level than not, and that is okay. What I hope fans find is a balance between enjoying the memories a player gives them while they are playing at the university they love along with with the emotions that come when players leave early for the draft.
As always you can follow the Haley and MandMsportshow on twitter @MandMSportshow and you can read more articles from Haley at The Water Cooler.