Keeping It Heel
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Instant Reaction from Late Night with Roy

By John Bauman

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The 2014 Late Night with Roy event concluded tonight in the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Here are a few thoughts from the night’s proceedings.

– Bobby Frasor was a good but not great host. Everyone loved his jokes about UNC not losing to Lehigh and Mercer in the first round, and being glad it didn’t snow so that the UNC fans from Durham could make it here, but the show was a little choppy overall. I think if he came back next year, he would be much more comfortable in the role, but for his first try, it wasn’t bad.

– The skit with the UNC players riding around campus in a golf cart was probably really funny, but the audio wasn’t great and fans couldn’t really enjoy all the comments that the players were making. It also kind of dragged on as the night went along. The highlight from that skit was the Tar Heel players trying to break dance in the Pit with some fellow UNC students.

– The announcement about the UNC Football game against Virginia Tech tomorrow afternoon didn’t get a really hardy cheer from the crowd. It was a pretty lukewarm reception for such a big game taking place the next afternoon.

– The highlight of the night overall was the lip sync battle, particularly the performances of Kennedy Meeks and Marcus Paige. Meeks sang Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You and Paige sang a Beyonce song, I believe. Here is Kennedy

Now for some thoughts about the basketball game.

– First off, here are the “official” stats from InsideCarolina.com. Some things that stick out from that are Justin Jackson finishing 8-9 from the field, Tokoto finishing 3-10 from the field and Marcus Paige finishing with 10 points on 4-8 shooting.

– Jackson was the star of the night. He finished with 18 points, the highest on the team, and was a big part of the Blue team’s comeback. He also had six rebounds. Jackson looked like an impact freshman for sure. He isn’t going to have the impact that a Jabari Parker had for Duke, but he is going to be a key piece of this team. I imagine him as a more athletic, more wing oriented, better shooting James Michael McAdoo. He has that same touch around the basket and that feel for cutting and finding his shots within the offense. Jackson was the MVP of the game and will play a big role for the Tar Heels this season.

– Joel James still can’t play offense, unfortunately. He finished with three points and 1-4 performance from the field. He still is a big body but not a post up or offensive threat beyond dunks and putbacks.

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– Isaiah Hicks looked good. He finished with four points, two assists and two boards and showcased some nifty post moves working against Jackson Simmons on offense.

– UNC wants to run. The pace of game was fast, almost to the point of too reckless with the speed. UNC is going to run on everyone this season and we will see if the other teams will be able to keep up.

– A lot of midrange shots to start of the game for the Tar Heels. The spacing was really bad, partly due to some non-rotation players getting in for a lot of minutes like Jackson Simmons or Desmond Hubert. But the court still was crowded with two big men and non-three point threats on the wing. This brings up a bigger, more concerning point that…

– UNC still can’t shoot. Maybe some of the freshman, most likely Jackson, will develop a workable three point shot, and maybe J.P. Tokoto finds form, but the same problem that plagued UNC last season will plague them again in 2014-15. If I’m an opposing coach, I am playing off of all Tar Heels on the three point line and clogging the paint save for Marcus Paige. With everyone else, I’m fine with letting them shoot. That lack of shooting is a big problem and will be something to watch throughout the early parts of the season.

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