Instant Reaction from Late Night with Roy

Oct 23, 2015; Chapel Hill, NC, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels guard Marcus Paige (5) is introduced at Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Late Night with Roy, UNC’s annual kickoff of the basketball season, took place on Friday night at the Dean E. Smith Center. The event was hosted by Kenny “the Jet” Smith and featured both the mens and women’s basketball teams.

Some instant reaction and thoughts on all things Late Night with Roy…

– I liked the new format of LNWR. This year, the men’s team was introduced first to start the night with a bang, and the women’s team was introduced later on as the men were preparing for their scrimmage. Seemed like it worked well; the crowd stayed engaged throughout the entire event and both team’s got some time to shine. I hope they keep this format going forward.

– Kenny Smith did a fine job hosting the event. It’s sort of a tough job in some ways to keep the events moving while still keeping the crowd happy, but Smith did well enough.

– The Stuart Scott tribute was very nice and the highlight of the night. Scott’s two daughters were treated well and hearing from them was a special moment. Sage Steele and Jones Angell also did well to help tribute a man so beloved by so many at UNC. The step team from Scott’s fraternity ended the tribute with a bang. Overall, very well done by the organizers of the event.

Now thoughts on the basketball part of the night…

– We saw 20 minutes of intersquad scrimmaging tonight. Fans have to keep this in mind as they are making judgements, because no player played as well or poorly as they will over the course of the long season. However, this was our first impression of the 2015-16 team, and there are some takeaways that can safely be made just from watching this first event of the season.

– What will the 2015-16 Tar Heels be good at? Transition offense, offensive rebounding and defense. Tonight’s scrimmage confirmed that. The Heels had some excellent transition buckets even with the starting five playing on two different teams. This is going to be a great offensive rebounding team. Meeks, Hicks, Johnson and James are all good to great rebounders, and even the guards grade out as above average for their positions. And the defense tonight was good — no easy buckets, good closeouts etc. We saw the strengths of the team on full display tonight.

– We also saw some of the same weaknesses. I still don’t love Carolina’s three-point shooting and floor spacing. Playing two bigs together, as Carolina almost always does, leaves the paint cramped for drives. You can space the floor by putting more shooting on the floor, but Carolina’s shooters, outside of Paige and Jackson, just aren’t a big enough threat for defenses to generate much space.

Some thoughts on individual players…

– Justin Jackson did a lot of work in the off-season working on his game, but he didn’t look any different to me in 20 minutes of scrimmage action. His floater is still money, he is still an average to good shooter and he makes smart basketball plays. Jackson got a big roar from the crowd in player introductions because of how well he played late last season, and he will need to continue to keep taking steps forward this year.

– Nate Britt still can’t shoot.

– Joel James still is not a fluid offensive player.

– Marcus Paige looked good. He’s got great range from three-point land, can drive and make plays in transition. Look for him to play a lot of two this year on the wing with Berry and Britt as point guards.

– Brice Johnson and Isaiah Hicks are going to be really fun to watch this year. Both guys are really, really talented.

On the freshmen…

– I 100% understand that this is one 20 minute intersquad scrimmage, and both players will improve immensely over the course of their Carolina careers, so we shouldn’t judge them too much. With that said, I wasn’t impressed by either of Carolina’s two freshmen tonight.

Luke Maye was hailed as a great shooter coming in. I didn’t see a good shooter playing tonight. I don’t think he has the athleticism to push Hicks or Johnson for a lot of playing time at the four. He already has more offensive prowess than Joel James, but he can’t play the backup five because he is too small, and he is too slow to play the three for extended minutes. Based off what I saw tonight, I don’t think he makes an impact for this team. Down the road, who knows.

Kenny Williams was also hailed as a great shooter. I didn’t see a good shooter playing tonight. He had some good entry passes to big men, and he handled the ball well, but I’m not sure he is an impact maker either.

The jury is still out on both of these guys obviously, but from what I saw tonight, I’m selling my stock in both of those players for this season.

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Let us know what you thought about tonight’s event in the comments below!