Missing the NCAA Tournament isn’t ideal for any program, and especially so for blue bloods like North Carolina.
But the Tar Heels didn’t participate this past season, and what a shame that was given how exciting the games were. Who knows, maybe the Heels would have made another run or at least been in a nail-biting thriller.
However, Hubert Davis and his team watched from home, or one would expect the head coach was watching. Likely, he was.
How can we tell? It appears so by looking at who Davis combed over in and eventually landed form transfer portal.
He obviously knew change was mandatory to get the program back on track, that is why difficult and honest conversations after the season with certain players led to them entering the portal and moving on. Davis has replaced them with proven perimeter shooters, and one player who has the potential to be above average outside. He also brought in some needed athletic ability.
What else may Davis have seen in the big dance his club lacked a year ago?
Defensive intensity. All-out, floor burns, bruised knees, dinged hips, and teams forcing opponents to start their offenses much farther out than they wanted. Yet, he also saw teams being pressured away from the basket still find ways to score and get solid shots off.
Movement off the ball in this tournament was usually outstanding. Teams cut, darted, rubbed, and slashed so well and so often they didn’t have to set six slow-developing screens leading to movement. It was also ready there and simply not as necessary.
**************************************************************************************
Wanna be a UNC Tar Heels insider? You can for just $8.33 a month
***************************************************************************************
Look at Miami and UConn, as examples. They will cut from anywhere and teammates are ready for it with feeds. How many lob dunks were seen during the tourney? Now count on one hand how many the Heels executed this past season. Davis brought in some cutters, especially in Jae’Lyn Withers, who can play the baseline quite well. More lob dunks are coming next winter. Cormac Ryan is also exceptional moving without the ball.
He also saw teams finish at the rim. Again, UConn probably won the national championship because of his efficient it was finishing at the rim. And again, Withers comes to mind because he is a very good finisher, and will get more chances with the Heels than he did on a dysfunctional Louisville team. That UNC shot around 53 percent on layups last season shouldn’t be lost on anyone.
Davis also saw clubs get out in transition and regularly go hard to the rim. There was a lot of “old” North Carolina on display in the tournament in the open court, but precious little from actual North Carolina this past season.
Carolina’s coach also saw older teams advance, and that it didn’t require having burger boys on the roster to win a title. UConn didn’t have a player ranked in the top 50, and there were no former McDonald’s All-Americans on any of the Final Four teams.
So, the ages of UNC’s four portal commits when the 2024 NCAA Tournament starts: Cormac Ryan 25; Paxson Wojcik 23; Jae’Lyn Withers 23; and Harrison Ingram 21. Plus, Armando Bacot will be 24 and RJ Davis 22.
North Carolina believes it rightfully has a spot in the NCAA Tournament each year, but the program and its personnel learned a hard lesson about how it’s earned over time, and the intangibles needed in approaching the game.
Silver lining or not, that might serve as a positive from this point on.