CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina junior forward Cade Tyson met with the media Wednesday afternoon at the Smith Center to discuss himself and the team preparing for the start of the season, which formally begins next Monday night at home when the Tar Heels welcome Elon.

Tyson transferred to UNC after spending two seasons at Belmont. At 6-foot-7, he averaged 13.6 as a freshman at Belmont and 16.2 points last season. He is a career 52.7 percent shooter from inside the arc. He also makes 85.7 percent of his free throws and averaged 5.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists this past season.

Tyson surpassed the 20-point plateau 10 times and scored in double figures in 25 of the 33 games. His seasonal high was 31 against Southern Conference Champion Samford, in which he hit six three-pointers.

He shot 46.5% on 172 attempted 3-pointers last season and was 128-for-287 (44.6%) in two seasons with the Bruins.

Above is video of Tyson’s Q&A session and below are some notes from what he had to say:

*Tyson discussed the process in gaining comfort playing with player the caliber of his teammates at UNC. He doesn’t have as many set plays run for him at UNC as was the case at Belmont, so finding his shots and meshing are things that have required some adjusting.

*However, Tyson said he’s comfortable finding shots now, has the full green light to shoot when he wants, and is confident any shot he takes if a good one.

“It took a little while,” he said. “I’m still trying to manage where my shots are coming from and when to shoot the ball and when not to shoot the ball. I think mainly, I don’t need to think too much about it. Whenever it’s there just shoot it.

“I’m not too worried about when I’m going to shoot or when I’ll find my shots.”

*Tyson was later asked about a scenario: he gets the ball wide open in the right corner, but to his left is a wide-open RJ Davis on the wing. Does he pass the ball to the reigning ACC Player of the Year or shoot it?

“And I’m wide open? I’m gonna shoot it if I’m wide open.”

*Tyson said he thought they played fast at Belmont, but what Carolina is doing is on a different level.

“We’re super fast, super athletic. And I think the biggest thing for us is we love to watch our other teammates succeed. It’s fun when you play like that and get up and down the court, watch Ian (Jackson) fly through the air and hit a windmill or something like that; lob it to Drake. That just gets the team really hyped and makes it more fun to play the game of basketball.”

*In addition, Tyson discussed RJ Davis as a leader; what he has learned about Seth Trimble as a player versus what he knew when he first arrived; on how he views the team and program at UNC now that he’s been in it for five months; the importance of rebounding; the biggest adjustment for him at UNC is the attention players get – the good and bad attention; Hubert Davis’ facial hair and more.