Heels Open Practice

North Carolina visits Wofford in 41 days and the national championship game in Minneapolis is in 223 days, and Wednesday afternoon, the Tar Heels will begin preparing for that 182-day marathon they hope will conclude with them playing on the final Monday of the season.

The Tar Heels are coming off a 26-11 campaign in which they were eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. But, they did beat Duke twice and earned a No. 2 seed in their region of the tournament.

Joel Berry and Theo Pinson are gone, but just about everyone else is back and the Heels also welcome in a three-man freshman class that is highly touted and includes two potential eventual starters in combo guard Coby White and small forward Nassir Little.

Joining them are last season’s second-leading scorer and leading rebounder Luke Maye (16.9 ppg, 10.1 rpg), defensive stopper and sharpshooter Kenny Williams (11.4 ppg, 40.2 percent from 3-point range) and forward Cam Johnson (12.4 ppg. 4.7 rpg).

Roy Williams’ team should have excellent stylistic balance, as it's built to play fast and small but also big and still pretty fast. Sophomore bigs Garrison Brooks (13 starts, 4.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg) and Sterling Manley (10 mpg, 5.4 ppg, 3.6 rpg) showed flashes and should stabilize UNC’s interior more this season.

For the Hall of Fame head coach, who is entering his 16th season at Carolina, he’s well aware of the potential of this roster. That excites him, as does what brings him back each year as focused and intent or more so than the year before.

Each team’s uniqueness gets Williams fired up before every season, and this year is no different, which is something he expressed this summer.

“I do look at every year as a new start,” he said. “We’re losing some tremendously gifted kids who shared the leadership of that team maybe as well as any team I’ve ever had. And yet we’re bringing in some kids who I think are very gifted and maybe more gifted than what we’re losing, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be as good a player because experience is a huge part of playing the game of basketball.

“I think all three guys we have coming in are going to be very good players for us, but I look at every year and say, ‘’Okay, it’s a new team.’”

*Will Seventh Woods corral the starting point guard job or will be serve as a backup once the meat of the schedule arrives?

*Have Brooks and Manley developed enough to allow Williams to play big for lengthy periods of time without much drop off in performance?

*Are White and Little as advertised, especially Little, who has made some pre-season All-America teams?

*Can Maye have a repeat performance from his amazing junior season?

*Will Kenny Williams find consistency shooting from the perimeter?

*What kind of depth will junior Brandon Robinson, sophomores Andrew Platek and Brandon Huffman, and freshman Rechon “Leaky” Black provide?