CHAPEL HILL – Kerwin Walton is excited as the basketball season approaches.

He and the other sophomores on the North Carolina basketball team get to experience a normal season with crowds, a full Dean Dome, and the road game at Duke, which will be as crazy ever given that it will be Blue Devils Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s last ever game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Walton will also display an improved, more well-rounded game, something he worked hard on in the offseason, he said when meeting with the media Wednesday afternoon.

Carolina is coming off an 18-11 season in which they were the second worst perimeter shooting team in program history at 31.8 percent. If not for Walton, last year’s club would have been the worst ever statistically.

His insertion into the starting lineup at Georgia Tech on Dec. 30 was big moment for him and for the Heels. It gave them a shooter out of the gate in games, helping to loosen how defenses approached the Heels.

Walton finished his freshman campaign averaging 8.2 points per game while converting 44.4 percent of his field goal attempts, including 42 percent from three-point range. In fact, 58 of Walton’s 79 field goals came from beyond the arc.

Walton scored in double figures 11 times with a high of 19 in a win over Louisville, a game in which he displayed his ability to shoot some off the dribble. Plus, he scored 18 in a home victory over Duke. In fact, in two games versus the Blue Devils, Walton was 10-for-13 from the floor, including 8-for-11 from beyond the arc, with 30 points.

He did have a slump, however. Beginning with a loss to Marquette on Feb. 24 and lasting five games through a rout of Notre Dame in the second-round of the ACC Tournament, Walton converted just 11 of 38 attempts from beyond the arc. So, in UNC’s other 24 games, he was 47-for-100, which is 47 percent.

Walton averaged 1.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists, though he handed out as many as four in four different games and was credited with only 15 steals. There is plenty he can and likely will do better next season and beyond, including getting better and more consistent on the defensive end.

Below are the full video of Walton’s Q&A session with the media as well as a complete transcript from what he had to say:

Q: How is your offensive development this offseason?

WALTON: "It's been going really well for me because I know how they are going to defend me this year. They are going to play me tight, so I'm going to have to switch it up a little bit and be able to play off the dribble and off the catch. It's just been in development for me, and I've been working extremely hard on it with me and my coach. I've gotten a lot better with it, so I'm feeling real comfortable with it."

Q: How will it help you to have more shooters around you this year?

WALTON: "I think it's going to open up for me and everybody else on the team. Now that we got more perimeter threats is going to be hard to get out all three of us, or all of us really. It's going to definitely open up the floor a lot for our bigs and for our guards to be able to drive to the basket. I think it's going to help our offense a lot, and we're going to be making more threes this year. I think it's definitely just going to give us some high-scoring games and win some games."

Q: What's the difference with the new coaching staff?

WALTON: "You can definitely feel the difference. It's a whole lot more energy; everybody's really excited for this season. Everybody has been developing and working hard and growing, so I think we're all really motivated to do really well this season. I think Coach Davis has done a really great job of motivating us, and having us work hard, and working with us to get better every single day. I think it's going to be a lot of positive energy with us on and off the court, and I think we're going to have a great year. "

Q: What do you expect from Caleb Love this year?

WALTON: "He's going to be great. I know he's been working really hard. I seen him before and after pickups and practices. He's been coming up in the morning, making sure he is trying to get better and get shots up. He's really been improving a lot this year. I think it's going to be ten times better than he was last year because of just the amount of work he's put it in and how focused he is."

Q: Have you seen a mental change from Caleb Love?

WALTON: "Yes, for sure, he already knows that based off his performance last year, people have written him off already. People have said this and that. They say all these negative things about him, and he's just taking all that, and he's putting that into motivation. He's a lot hungrier than he was last year. Now he got something to prove as an individual and for a team. Right now, he's going to show that he's Caleb. He's nothing else that's worse or whatever people are saying about him. He's going to definitely become different this year."

Q: What else can you do to improve as a shooter?

WALTON: "It's always about making sure my form stays tight, and everything stays correct and being able to knock down shots consistently. Also, the main thing is being able to make contested shots. I'm rarely going to get an open shot. That was kind of evident from last year; once I started making shots, teams started getting up on me. I'm going to be good at making contested shots. I might have to start making shots from farther out as well, so I've been working a whole lot on that. Even just off the dribble, just contested shots off the dribble, being consistent and making all those, so I can stay in an efficient percentage for when I'm shooting threes. I already know people are going to start running out on me, so I'm going to be able to have a great pump fake and be able to take it to the rim or pull up for the mid-range. I'm going to make sure I do them all at game speed to make sure I'm ready for the game."

Q: Has Coach Davis talked analytics with you guys?

WALTON: "Lately, not really. His biggest thing is that we're going to be coming real hungry this year. The past two years, for Carolina standards, we came up real short. That's something we got to turn around; that's something we got to change right now. We are more focused on being able to make shots which is something we didn't do last year. We are going to have to guard one through five, which is something we definitely have to improve on a lot for this year.

"That's the thing we're most focused on, is being able to make shots and guard the ball that's the biggest thing that we focused on right now. Also, staying motivated every single day to get better that's going to be the main goal."

Q: How excited were you when Dawson Garcia committed?

WALTON: "I was super excited. I'm really glad he's here with us. I think he's going to be great not only for this team but just the program in general. I don't think people know exactly what he can do, and just how good he is, which is going to be a blessing because nobody is going to expect him. He's a big; he's real versatile, he comes on the perimeter on the block. He's a good guy all around. He brings great energy for the team. I think it's going to be really good for us and, he's also my guy too, so that's always going to be a plus for me. "

Q: What was your pitch to Dawson Garcia?

WALTON: "I told him if you want to win, you want to win a championship, this is the place. if we win the championship, we all going to eat. Everybody's going to get what they need, everybody's going to get what they want, and you dont gotta worry about it. That's definitely going to come, but if you want to win something, if you want to be great and get better, this is the place you gotta be.I know me and him; we've done a lot of things when we played back in high school and AAU. That's exactly what we did; we was winning championships, and everybody was getting scholarship offers and all that. We didn't have to worry about nothing but winning the games it's gonna be the same thing here."

Q: What are you looking forward to your first normal college basketball season?

WALTON: "I think the biggest thing for me is playing in front of fans; I think that's the biggest thing I want to experience, what it's like to play in front of thousands and thousands of people. That would be the most people I've ever played against. I heard that a lot of talk about how exciting that atmosphere is and just how great it is to play in front of all those people. And just how passionate the fans can get during the games, that's definitely something I want to experience."

Q: Is there an arena you are looking forward to silencing?

WALTON: "Man, there's a lot. I think probably the biggest one I've been thinking about recently is Duke. I heard it's a straight sea of duke people it's just crazy, and I think silencing the crowd like that, the crowd of all crowds, according to some of my teammates been saying from their experiences. I think that would be a great feeling for me."

Q: Do you feel like you get a redo of your freshman season?

WALTON: "For sure because, just like the beginning of this fall, I finally figured out my way around campus a little bit.It's crazy, I'm a sophomore, and I'm just now learning how to get around campus. We didn't play in front of no fans really last year. I still feel like a kid. The new kid, but it's going to be a whole new experience. Especially for all of us sophomores, and I think it's going to feel great. "

Q: How has your father helped you develop?

WALTON: "When it comes to anything basketball-related, he's doing about everything for me. I pretty much got all of my skills and things that I've learned mostly from him. It always started with him, and we always worked on my shot. It is always about the small details, and then once I mastered those fundamentals. Then it was just about applying them in the game, and then once you apply them in the game, they're going to try to come up with game plans against it. You are going to be able to be flexible enough to be able to overcome everything. So that's kind of this thing, me and my dad. We always work on preparing for anything being able to do whatever it takes to win and whatever it takes to score. "