From practice - ours or anybody's? I haven't seen any comments on this.

When the announcement was first made we had a bunch of different opinions on the impact.

Some opined that it wouldn't matter. The players will adjust.

Some thought it wouldn't matter for some, but might bump several players lower in the rotation because their percentages would drop. Whereas a few might not even notice. Probably wouldn't have bothered Cam, for example, if it had happened last year.

And some thought it would affect enough players that we might see some serious offensive and defensive changes. More packing in, for example, since some teams may not be able to punish you from deep. Perhaps some trick zones - box and triangle versions that focus on the 1 or 2 deep threats. More 3-point shooting from corners, meaning more players running to those spots on breaks, among other things.

I saw this on TOS. I could only identify a few. After reading the names, I think I should have been able to identify nearly all, but I couldn't.

How many can you name?

Before you actually give names, just report how many you feel sure of, so others can have time to work on it.

First, let me preface this by saying it's questionable as to whether Sterling can get healthy enough to even play this year. If he does, it is still questionable whether or not his conditioning would allow him to make a meaningful contribution. So I am going on the assumption that he won't play, and if he does, anything he gives us will be gravy.

After rewatching the LNWR scrimmage, I am happy to see that Huff and Walker both seem to have improved enough to at least "hold the fort" when they relieve one of our starters. Both seem to be in pretty good shape and run the court reasonably well. And someone has obviously been working on adding the jump hook to their arsenal, as both demonstrated multiple times during the exhibition. I have always felt it was the most effective shot a big can master, being almost impossible to block if executed properly. It can be especially effective for bigs who aren't great athletes, a description that fits both of these guys. If they continue to work on their footwork, establishing position, making themselves available for the pass and catching it, they can give us adequate play off the bench. And I think we'll need that because Garrison has been foul prone thus far(hoping the light will come on for him as it did for Brice in his junior year), and Mando is a freshman adjusting to bigger/faster/stronger competition, and is liable to encounter foul/conditioning issues as most freshmen bigs do.

Mando has a lot to learn, a lot. I can't see any way at this point that he doesn't play at least two years for us. He has good, but not great, hands. He has a good frame which should enable him to put on more muscle. While he isn't a great leaper, his long arms should compensate somewhat and allow him to be a solid rebounder. His footwork and post moves are going to need a lot of work, much as most freshmen bigs do. I do think he will, by necessity, start alongside Garrison from day one. I expect steady improvement as the year progresses.

Garrison has steadily improved as he's gotten stronger and played more. He will finally get to play his more natural PF position and that should benefit him. We need him to be an upperclassman leader, like BRob, and be a steadying influence on the team. He and Mando need to control the boards if we're to compete for the ACC title. I think they are capable of that, with help from our rangy wings of course.

What do you think?

https://www.si.com/college/2019/10/02/all-decade-team-ncaa-zion-williamson-anthony-davis


1st Team:
Anthony Davis, Kentucky
Zion Williamson, Duke
Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
Kemba Walker, UConn
Doug McDermott, Creighton

2nd Team:
Jimmer Fredette, BYU
Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin
Jalen Brunson, Villanova
Jahlil Okafor, Duke
Jared Sullinger, Ohio State

3rd Team:
Shabazz Napier, UConn
Frank Mason, Kansas
Draymond Green, Michigan State
Denzel Valentine, Michigan State
Fred VanVleet, Wichita State

Before the Walker signing, I thought we had a good chance at Hunter. I thought it was basically between us and PU. If we didn’t get him I was hoping he would go to PU. He was supposed to have an official visit with them this week. The rumblings are he’s dropping PU and now FSU/Michigan are favorites. Very surprised hearing that. One thing about Matt Painter is he runs his offense through his studs. Last two examples are Carson Edwards PG and The year before that was Calib Swanigan (C). Juwan hasn’t done anything and FSU is FSU.

I figure we might get a better feel for our walking wounded, now that practices have started.

Anybody have any dope?

To Carolina. A great get for Coach William's.

...(Walker Kessler edition).

First off, my apologies for not having much to share earlier. It's been a weird summer --- My best AAU source has been on the road a lot for his day job (as have I) and my best pickup source signed on with a S.American pro team for some summer tourneys, so info has been more sporadic than usual.

That being said, the last couple of weeks have been like a fire-hose --- everyone be catchin' up now, it seems.

- Interestingly, the first agenda item amongst my cirle "reconvening" a couple of weeks back was the Kessler recruitment, and to a man everyone I spoke with down here basically gave the look to the narrative that he was ever a dook lock (or even favorite, for that matter). In fact, at that time the thought around ATL was that Auburn was in the driver's seat, if anyone was. The one thing for sure (and I reported as much here and on an Auburn board) was that the Kesslers were always gonna do their due dilligence. So when it was reported here and elsewhere that Roy had turned up the full-court press I even warned some Auburn fans that this thing wasn't over (they didn't much like that).

- Sorry if this offends anyone, but the Kessler-to-dook "crystal balls" were little more than a lazy default from the get-go. And speaking of which, I can also report that the Auburn staff was absolutely stunned by the sudden UNC commitment --- and not just the suddenness, but that it happened at all. They truly thought they had Walker and were gonna cement it this weekend (on his planned return visit).

- Bottom line is the Kesslers took a methodical and smart family approach to recruiting, and their finalists reflected that. Still, it was no surprise they eliminated Zaga and Michigan because of distance. This one came down to Auburn/dook/UNC... and Auburn (not dook) came in second. I was told the family really liked Bruce and the proximity, and that their recruiting has moved into elite territory with the FF run. Thus, all that speaks volumes for the impression UNC made on Walker on his visit to cause him to pop. It also speaks to the fact that if a recruitment is clean (which this one was), the basketball mecca that is Chapel Hill is a tough pass.

- Speaking of which, I previously addressed the obvious question of how a double-legacy like Kessler could eschew UGA, and I said months ago that he was likely theirs... as long as Crean didn't screw it up. Welp, guess what? He did. I'm told there was more than one thing about Crean that turned the family off (including his offensive system), and perhaps one of those concerns Crean's recruiting tactics. I held off posting this (since my original source was a friend who is ---believe it or not --- a UGA booster), but it's now making the coach grapevine rounds down here that UGA bought Ant Edwards, to the tune of (get this) $300k. Stay tuned on that one...

- Finally, a postscript. Walker plays at Woodward (a high-$ private school just south of town) and their competition is not always the best except for tourneys, and he has a rep (deserved or not) of being "soft". Realizing that, Walker is going hard-core with a local Big-man guru (who's tight with one of my coach buds) --- sorta like a suburban boxer going to Rocky's inner-city gym --- where he's gonna get banged on by some grown-ass men. In fact my guy was supposed to play pickup with them down here this week. Will be interested to hear his feedback...

That's all for now... I'll post some Chapel Hill pickup tidbits from the past few weeks next time. Meanwhile, here's to a succesful Late Night weekend!

When you look up the commits for a team on 247, just below that year's players you'll see a scrolling line of what they call "All-Time Commits."

First, these are not really All-Time Commits, since as far as I can tell they only looked back to 2003. Which is why I named this thread "Top Recent Commits."

They base the lists on the numerical score of the player, rather than the rank. If you think the numerical ratings are a better measure - which they probably are - then that makes sense. But it isn't my intent to quibble about that.

The question I asked myself is which teams had the most 5-stars, 4-stars and 3-stars among their top 25 commits from 2003 thru 2018 (so not including Cole and Armando), according to 247's scoring.

Here's the list. I put them in order of total 5-star PLUS 4-star players, and broke ties by looking at the number of 5-star players. That just seemed to work a little better than going only by the number of 5-stars.

First number is the number of 5-stars, then 4-stars, then 3-stars

Duke-------25 0 0
UNC--------19 6 0
Syracuse---12 13 0
Louisville--8 17 0
NC State----7 18 0
FSU---------6 19 0
Ga Tech-----5 19 1
Wake--------3 20 2
UVa---------1 22 2
Pitt--------2 19 4
Miami-------4 14 7
Notre Dame--0 18 7
Va Tech-----1 16 9
Clemson-----1 9 15
Boston Col--0 5 20

Hello my Tar Heel Family! Has anyone heard of how Jeremiah and Anthony are doing with their unfortunate bouts with some severe injuries? Going into the summer I thought that Jeremiah might redshirt for the upcoming season. Both players look extremely talented when healthy. I hope the young men can come back at 100% or close to it. I know that Jeremiah’s injury is extremely serious.

Login to view embedded media That Wendell Carter loves his strip clubs.

Just saw on inside Carolina that Late Night with Roy will be on Friday 27 September with doors opening at four with a girls volleyball game played prior to the basketball activities. This is s big weekend as UNC hosts Clemson at Kenan in football the next day. So 38 days after today and we will get our first REAL look at the roundball team...

Apparently Todd was also in town but I have yet to see anywhere on numerous sites any comments from the possible recruitments to UNC how they felt about being part of the Carolina family...

I know it will depend on how they (and others) actually play and practice and fit in. But a fair argument can be made that Roy should highlight them, if possible.

It seems that grad transfers are becoming a more popular thing among the better players at small schools. If they have the coursework and feel they can improve their prospects of playing for pay by showcasing for a better-known school or coach, then the question is: which school or coach?

I imagine Cam's success here helped Roy land Keeling and Pierce. But opposing coaches can always downplay that by pointing out that Cam was here 2 years. Most grad transfers don't have 2 years of eligibility.

So . . . it makes sense that if Keeling and Pierce do well here, that helps with recruiting future grad transfers. Whereas if they don't that will be used against Roy in future competition for grad transfers.

Again, it depends on whether they are good enough and fit in well enough. But if they do, it might make sense to give them extra PT or start them or do other things to make the case that UNC is a good destination for skilled grad transfers to grow and succeed.

_

Shouldn't have to go to other sites for this.

Or for the schedule (to the extent it is known).

This is great !!! Avenati rips K, the doookies claim the whole payoff to Zion never happened but the plot is thick. I especially like the part where Avenati claims K has been paying players to play at Dook for years. Man I HOPE this Avenati does have the goods on that fraud in Derm. That would be the BEST to finally nail that phony ahole and his entire program Stay tuned !!

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...3/duke-probe-finds-no-evidence-nike-paid-zion

Looking at the roster, there does not appear to be a natural 4 other than Brooks on the roster. Who will play the 4 position when he needs a break?

*

What are your expectations for the talented big fella.

signed by the Bucks to an exhibit 10 contract.... gets him a spot at training camp and most likely a run with their G League team.

Ive seen alot in various places on Nas dropping. Some blame the system at UNC. However, why don't we hear as much about Reid from Kentucky, Bolden from Duke, etc that dropped to undrafted free agent? Or more on how White and Cam became lottery picks at UNC?

Yeah, I'm excited and it's only May. Can't wait. All games are from here: https://www.tarheeltimes.com/schedulebasketball-2019.aspx. We play 31 regular season games per year, and this year we'll play 20 ACC games. Here it goes...

We play 20 ACC games starting this year, in a move to create more competitive schedules and create inventory for the ACC Network. And on that note, to launch the network we are starting the season with a conference game! Yep, our first game of the season is versus Notre Dame in Chapel Hill on November 6th to kick off the network. Given our team's inexperience I'm glad it's a home game, as ND should be pretty good this year.

After that we kickoff the 11 game non-conference schedule. The order of the games is not entirely set, but 9 of the 11 teams are already finalized. We've got:

Home games vs: Wofford, Elon, Yale, Ohio State

Road games @: Gonzaga, UNC-Wilmington

Neutral site CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas vs: UCLA

Three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas against a combination of: Gonzaga, Michigan, Oregon, Alabama, Seton Hall, Iowa State, and Southern Miss

Unscheduled: 1 remaining game (likely a home game against a mid-major)

We've got our usual barnstorming tour around the Carolinas, with return games with Wofford and Elon coming to Chapel Hill. We scheduled 2-for-1s with these schools, so we play 1 game at their place and they give us 2 seasons of games in Chapel Hill. We're also playing at UNC-W to give CB McGrath a game. The Gonzaga home-and-home concludes with us playing in Spokane, and we'll get to see Mick Cronin's UCLA squad in Vegas.

In an odd scheduling quirk, we could play Gonzaga twice in the non-con if we meet again in the Battle 4 Atlantis. I expect us to be the #1 and #2 seeds in that bracket, meaning a possible finals matchup with two wins each. I think we'll be the #1 seed in that tourney? If so, that means unfortunately we'd start with Southern Miss rather than a more interesting team. Assuming we take care of business there we likely play one of Michigan or Oregon, before getting to the final game.

Because of the potential Michigan matchup in the B4A and our game this past year, I don't expect the ACC - B1G challenge game to be against Michigan. We only get paired with the big market B1G teams for TV reasons, so our challenge game is going to be against Ohio State in Chapel Hill this year.

Overall, the tough non-con games will be @ Gonzaga, the final two B4A games, and maybe the Ohio State game. UCLA's team is in flux and our home slate should be pretty easy.

The ACC schedule breaks down like this:

Home and Away: dook, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, UVA, Wake Forest
Home only: BC, GT, Miami, Clemson
Away only: FSU, Syracuse, Louisville, Virginia Tech

Here is the rotating three year schedule we'll be on with the new 20 game ACC format: https://theacc.com/news/2019/2/14/acc-announces-future-mens-basketball-20-game-opponents.aspx

As you can see, this is really the year we get the easy home slate. Our only tough home games should be dook and UVA (and maybe ND since it's the first game of the season). We do get pounded with two games against UVA and away games vs FSU, Cuse, and Louisville though. Will be tough to come up with road victories, but should prepare us for difficult atmospheres. In subsequent years those groupings will rotate, and I like that we at least got UVA broken away from Louisville and FSU. Virginia Tech will possibly be an easy out this year, losing most of their top players and Buzz.

The guys from the Dunc'd On podcast (which btw, is by far the best NBA source of info out there; extremely detailed discussions of most games, every trade, contract, etc) are doing scouting reviews of the top prospects. Their latest is on Coby White, and they spent 40 solid minutes breaking down his game and how it will translate to the NBA. You can listen to it here:

http://nateduncannba.com/podcast-ep...oby-white-scouting-report-phx-offseason-news/

Coby's section starts at 33:05 and ends at 1:13:00. These guys are both pretty connected to NBA front offices, so you can get a sense of what the league thinks about him. At the end of the segment they both say they'd take him over RJ Barrett.