A major current issue with the UNC basketball program

As the UNC basketball program looks more like a bubble team by the day, one problem with roster management continues to persist. 

During last season’s NCAA tournament run, the “Iron 5” earned a lot of publicity. The group was heavily relied on by Hubert Davis, as the UNC basketball program made a rather surprise run to the National Championship game.

With that team, depth seemed to be a big issue, as they lacked a true backup point guard and didn’t have much size other than the duo of Armando Bacot and Brady Manek.

It worked for last year’s squad, but that doesn’t mean it has to for this year’s team.

Throughout the 2022-2023 regular season, Hubert Davis’ use of the bench has been very questionable, as there hasn’t been much emphasis on consistent playing time for any player in a reserve role.

Seth Trimble’s playing time has been inconsistent (and has decreased as of late).

Jalen Washington, who has impressed in small spurts, hasn’t played more than six minutes in any of the Tar Heels’ last four contests (but played 46 combined minutes in the two games that Armando Bacot missed against Virginia and Louisville).

Puff Johnson’s injury woes have hurt him from finding a steady role.

D’Marco Dunn went from being a 15-20 minute per-game player to a guy who would be lucky to play 5-10 minutes.

And who can forget the likes of Dontrez Styles and Tyler Nickel (other than the Tar Heels coaching staff), as both have struggled to even get on the court for the most part.

Of course, I’m sure to get the “it’s easy for us to say” comments regarding this matter. Quite frankly, everyone seems to know it other than the UNC basketball coaching staff.

We obviously don’t see what goes on in practice, but I would sure love to see it. A guy like Nickel can’t be much worse defensively than what we’ve seen, as other than Leaky Black (and Seth Trimble in his limited action), the rest of the Tar Heels have left a lot of room to be desired.

To add to that, how is it possible for a player to be effective on game day when they don’t play on a consistent basis? It’s very difficult to just be thrown into the fire when “your number is called,” especially if you’ve spent the majority of the time on the bench over the previous few contests.

By this point of the year, the Tar Heels should have developed depth and should have a consistent rotation to work with.

Whether you like it or not, North Carolina has mightily failed in this area.

We got so used to Roy Williams pulling the entire starting lineup when things went wrong, as you felt the sense of accountability. However, with this group, the starters seem to have free reign with no repercussions, as it seems as if they are still trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

In the current world of college basketball, the way that Davis is utilizing his players is leading towards one thing: roster overhaul.

It’s simply not the days of “earn your role,” as you felt that players would be around for three, even possibly four years. In this day and age, if a player is unhappy with their role, they can simply enter the transfer portal and play immediately elsewhere.

Ask someone like Kerwin Walton, who has played 20+ minutes in each of his last three contests for Texas Tech.

If things don’t change, and quickly, the UNC basketball program is going to struggle to keep guys around. Ultimately, it may even impact recruiting, as who in their right mind would come to a program where the coach is set on playing 5-6 guys and using the rest sporadically?

There’s simply no excuse. This year’s group has a lot more depth than a season ago. It’s time to find a way to carve out consistent roles so that this depth can help provide a much-needed spark.

I mean, it can’t be much worse than running the same guys out there for 30-35 minutes a night that quite frankly isn’t getting the job done.

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