UNC basketball program showing interest in reigning Patriot League Player of the Year

According to On3Sports, North Carolina is showing interest in Bucknell's 7-foot center Noah Williamson, the reigning Patriot League player of the year.

Williamson is a junior from Riga, the capital of Latvia, nestled between Estonia and Lithuania, a hoops hotbed from the former Soviet Union. His three seasons in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, have shown steady improvement, culminating in 17.6 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game, 1.6 assists per game, and 1.1 blocks per game averages this season.

Williamson would be an obvious answer to Hubert Davis's call for more size. During his weekly radio show on March 26th, Coach Davis said,

"We've got to get bigger, we just do. From A to Z, we just do. And we talked about the physicality of Ole Miss and their positional size was bigger than us. And pretty much that's the way we were the whole season. So that's one of the things that we're definitely going to address is, we've got to get bigger. In terms of that physicality, you have to have a presence, you have to be bigger. And that's what we're addressing."

North Carolina Head Coach Hubert Davis

At 7-feet, 250 pounds, Noah Williamson has the bulk to bang in the post, and the height to get some easy baskets in the paint. Poor Elliot Cadeau was desperate for a center like this to penetrate and toss lobs to when the defense collapses. Late is better than never, and whoever UNC rolls out at point guard would have an able partner in Williamson.

Ven-Allen Lubin may have the slipperiness and guile to get buckets in the paint, but Williamson has more of the brute force. He would be an excellent complimentary piece to counteract teams with size advantages. Let's see if new general manager's Jim Tanner's international connections can help tie this recruitment down quickly.