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Is next year’s team (2026) looking better or worse than this year’s squad (2025)?

Is next year’s team (2026) looking better or worse than this year’s squad (2025)?

  • Yes we are better!

    Votes: 14 33.3%

  • We are about the same

    Votes: 11 26.2%

  • We are worse :(

    Votes: 17 40.5%
  • Total voters
    42
T

TarHeelFanJ

Sophomore
Apr 22, 2020
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I know we (hopefully) aren’t done in the portal, but as things stand today (4/24) are we looking better for 2026 compared to 2025? Are we worse? About the same? 🤔

We lose 7 of our top 9 scorers from this year

All-American RJ Davis
starting PG Elliot Cadeau
two 5 stars in Ian Jackson and Drake Powell our starting PF Jae’Lyn Withers
backup F/C Jalen Washington
Cade Tyson


We have added :
Freshman Caleb Wilson (5 star)
Freshman Derek Dixon (4 star)
Freshman Isaiah Denis (4 star)
Henri Veesaar (Arizona)
Kyan Evans (Colorado State)
Jarin Stevenson (Alabama)
Jonathan Powell (West Virginia)
Zayden High (UNC - DNP)


We return :
Seth Trimble
James Brown

TBD : Ven-Allen Lubin
 
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Upcoming roster (imo) just as flawed but they are bigger. Offense looks to be a concern but at least we should at least be able to rebound more of the misses. Haven't seen much from the staff on developing consistent defense but on paper this team should be better at that end.

I still see a solid bubble team unless one of the freshmen contributes more on the offensive side of the ball than expected.
 
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If the roster is done, we're in trouble. We have a bunch of role players and we'd be hoping Wilson has a Cooper Flagg type year, which he's not capable of. There is no way the team we have now can be the team we have come November.

We need an alpha. A guy that can get us shot when we need it. And we need another big; a rim protector and defender. And even if we got those two things, we would have a marginal, albeit long and tall, roster.
 
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Asking this question now is like asking how good the cake is when it's halfway baked. There is no way we are done with Lubin and Powell spot open (not to mention their nil money available).

Answer=TBD
 
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gunslingerdick said:
If the roster is done, we're in trouble. We have a bunch of role players and we'd be hoping Wilson has a Cooper Flagg type year, which he's not capable of. There is no way the team we have now can be the team we have come November.

We need an alpha. A guy that can get us shot when we need it. And we need another big; a rim protector and defender. And even if we got those two things, we would have a marginal, albeit long and tall, roster.
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Spot on. I see nobody that’ll get a bucket when we absolutely need it. And there certainly is no bailout player like RJ sometimes was.
 
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The answer is TBD right now. Have to see how the rest of the roster fills out. It's also dependent on largely unknown factors right now (Dixon, Denis, Brown, and High). And also dependent how good Wilson is from day one.

There's better structure on this roster. Veesaar/Wilson/Stevenson should be significant upgrades over Lubin/Withers/Washington. So the backbone of the team is much more stable than it was last season. Also, assuming Jonathan Powell doesn't start and he comes off the bench, he being a playable bench player is a significant, ridiculous upgrade over Cade Tyson.

So I think they got better in the area they absolutely needed to get better at. Now the question is, can they get a legit #1 option?
 
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I'm thinking RJ Luis. I know he flamed out in their loss against Arkansas and Pitino pulled him. I don't see that as much different than RJ shooting the same as Luis did against Alabama the previous year, only Hubert didn't have the sack to bench him.

I don't see Luis on many draft boards so think he would return to college for a big enough NIL package. He would give us length at the two (I think he's 6'7) and an alpha scorer. Coming from Pitino his baseline defense would probably be better than 90% of our players last year.
 
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Hard to say just looking at the roster on paper. How will Hubert and the staff adjust to this new collection of players? What will the offensive and defensive schemes be? In years past I feel like this staff made plans in the off-season based on how they thought things would go and didn't do a great job adjusting when things didn't go as planned. So, what's plan B or C if certain players don't play as expected? I answered "worse" by the way, based solely on roster talent. But the answers to my aforementioned questions I think will have a bigger impact on the ceiling/floor of this roster as it stands
 
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Kool1234567 said:
Let’s not forget RJ this year was nothing like RJ ACC POY….You are not replacing that RJ….
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I dunno why some people are so sour to RJ Davis this past season. Without him, it would have been a complete disaster. I think his absence, after 5 years, is going to be severely felt.

I've been trying to get behind Hubert Davis the whole time, defending him even though he's been drug through the coals. This roster, as it is now, is hardly anything to get too excited about. There's no go-to bucket getter. RJ Davis was a bucket getter.
 
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Kool1234567 said:
Let’s not forget RJ this year was nothing like RJ ACC POY….You are not replacing that RJ….
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He was mostly back by the end of the season. And he'll be hard to replace.

We really missed Armando. Lubin deserves more credit than he gets, but he wasn't Armando. Does Veesaar fill that big hole? I think there's a good chance he does.

I'm not saying Evans will be as good as I expected Elliot to be this year, but I think he could be as good or better than Elliot last year. Less flash but steadier and a better shooter.

Seth should give us another year of incremental improvement. I won't jinx him by predicting that he'll turn the corner as a senior (but I won't be surprised if he does).

We're replacing Withers with a freshman. On paper, Wilson looks like an upgrade. But Hubert has a dismal record of getting the best out of freshmen. So who knows?

That's 4 starting slots. We have a good chance of being as good or better than last year in 3 of them. The 5th is up in the air with Drake's departure. While I expected Drake to be a star this year, he was just good last year. We may not be able to match star, but we should at least be able to match good.

So, yeah, I'd say we should be better.
 
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strummingram said:
I dunno why some people are so sour to RJ Davis this past season. Without him, it would have been a complete disaster. I think his absence, after 5 years, is going to be severely felt.

I've been trying to get behind Hubert Davis the whole time, defending him even though he's been drug through the coals. This roster, as it is now, is hardly anything to get too excited about. There's no go-to bucket getter. RJ Davis was a bucket getter.
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I can hear it next year like clockwork. When we struggle it’s because EC left and when we do well it’s because RJ left. lol
 
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Need an efficient wing scorer who can shoot and another big if Lubin is gone. If they get those pieces this team will be better than last. If they don’t, it will be worse.
 
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notashelbyfan said:
We had the same RJ we just didn't have the same core around him. When you are the only player that the other team has to stop that makes it hard on any caliber player at every level.
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That’s true….Also Hubert told EC not to take wide open shots and didn’t let him flourish…

How this team will go next year will be known when the take the court….But for me the roster is improved just by the size and length we added…
 
How does everyone feel a month later? Does Carolina pick up anyone else? Maybe a big time scorer 🤞??? How is next year looking realistically with the staff, roster and potential transfers left?
 
I think we have players better fitted to positions and more able to produce right now than we did last last season. Are they more talented, hard to say but being better fitted we are strongly improved. It is now up to Hubert and his staff to adapt his approach to fit the ability of the incoming players, a task woefully under achieved last season. It simply comes down to 2 things:

1) Can Hubert and this staff evaluate the abilities of the current players and put them in positions that allow them to play to their strengths which was a major fail last season.

2) Will Hubert adjust his approach on both ends of the court to more fit the players ability, another major failing from last season.

Based on what I have seen for the last 4 seasons, I would not bet on Hubert being able to do one of these things much less both and BOTH are absolute musts. This season is to me the acid test for Hubert as a coach, the talent excuse should not be there, these guys should be more coachable than last season's group. Simply put no more excuses, time to put up or shut up.
 
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DSouthr said:
I think we have players better fitted to positions and more able to produce right now than we did last last season. Are they more talented, hard to say but being better fitted we are strongly improved. It is now up to Hubert and his staff to adapt his approach to fit the ability of the incoming players, a task woefully under achieved last season. It simply comes down to 2 things:

1) Can Hubert and this staff evaluate the abilities of the current players and put them in positions that allow them to play to their strengths which was a major fail last season.

2) Will Hubert adjust his approach on both ends of the court to more fit the players ability, another major failing from last season.

Based on what I have seen for the last 4 seasons, I would not bet on Hubert being able to do one of these things much less both and BOTH are absolute musts. This season is to me the acid test for Hubert as a coach, the talent excuse should not be there, these guys should be more coachable than last season's group. Simply put no more excuses, time to put up or shut up.
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To this non-coach's eyes, the incoming team looks better balanced but with less raw talent. On the theory that balance helps to actualize talent and that actualized talent is what wins games, my feeling is that we are as good as or maybe a bit better going forward - even if we don't add a premier player.

But it's a close call. So I hope we do add a premier player. But it's important to get one who doesn't upset the balance.

As you suggest, @DSouthr, the question mark with this supposedly better-balanced team is whether that better balance translates into a team that Hubert is able to coach better.

To be fair to Hubert, last year's poorly-balanced team was not easy to knit into a cohesive whole that was better than its parts. But it's hard to be sure how much of that was the bad balance and how much was dubious coaching. We all have our predisposed notions on that. Dean would have figured it out faster and knit them into a high-functioning team. Gary Williams would have developed the players better, And so on. But is that really true?
 
What Would Jesus Do? said:
He was mostly back by the end of the season. And he'll be hard to replace.

We really missed Armando. Lubin deserves more credit than he gets, but he wasn't Armando. Does Veesaar fill that big hole? I think there's a good chance he does.

I'm not saying Evans will be as good as I expected Elliot to be this year, but I think he could be as good or better than Elliot last year. Less flash but steadier and a better shooter.

Seth should give us another year of incremental improvement. I won't jinx him by predicting that he'll turn the corner as a senior (but I won't be surprised if he does).

We're replacing Withers with a freshman. On paper, Wilson looks like an upgrade. But Hubert has a dismal record of getting the best out of freshmen. So who knows?

That's 4 starting slots. We have a good chance of being as good or better than last year in 3 of them. The 5th is up in the air with Drake's departure. While I expected Drake to be a star this year, he was just good last year. We may not be able to match star, but we should at least be able to match good.

So, yeah, I'd say we should be better.
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FYI WW, I used your post because of your saying Lubin deserved more credit. Lubin to me is garrison Brooks, not a poor man's version but maybe a I just got off welfare and don't have a lot right now version? LOL FYI, coming from me, that is not a compliment for Lubin.

Brooks to me had 1 solid season, Bacot's freshman season, a season that went off the rails for many reasons. The next season Roy brought in Sharpe and Kessler and Bacot made a MAJOR step up. But in what I felt was a classic mistake from Roy, Kessler got stuck on the bench and Brooks not only started but got far more minutes than I felt he deserved. Sharpe leaves the following year and Kessler enters the portal as soon as it opened, what does Brooks do, he enters the portal. I relate last season as a lesser version of Brooks lone solid season, they both waited late to announce they were entering the portal when it was harder to replace them.

I am not upset that Lubin is gone, told everyone to expect that way before the portal opened, I am extremely upset that so far we have done nothing to replace him with a back up center.
 
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Also it seems like our portal additions are younger which can give them that sophomore bump we always talk about. I think what has been added is good based on that. I worry about scoring like everyone else on the board.
 
We should be better this year. Ian and Drake merely showed glimpses of the players they could become. Elliot was improperly used and immature. VAL was serviceable. I’d like to see a scoring wing and a backup five added but I think the pieces are there to have a top 3 ACC team if properly utilized. Hubert’s system is my biggest concern. I see a lack of fundamentals and discipline that hasn’t been addressed in four years. That must change or I can’t see this team reaching their potential and Hubert maintaining his position. I wish Lebo had been let go. Regardless, this appears to be a make or break year for Hubert.
 
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IIRC, early draft entrants have to withdraw by Monday night (5/26) to maintain their college eligibility. Is that correct?

A few guys who have been mentioned here may become available. FSU's Jamir Watkins and St John's' RJ Luis are the top-rated SFs left in the portal.

Glancing at a couple of the mock drafts, I don't see either of them mentioned.

Two questions:

1. Are we in the running for either Watkins or Luis?

2. If Drake is going to be drafted in the high 2nd round, give or take, and these guys won't be drafted, that sounds like we could be weaker at SF even if we get one of these top guys. Then again, these guys are rugged and experienced, so maybe they would still be a step up from Drake as a freshman. What's the thinking?
 
alabamaheel said:
I can hear it next year like clockwork. When we struggle it’s because EC left and when we do well it’s because RJ left. lol
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I see your getting ahead of the curve .. and likely right cause I'll be leading the charge 😁.. we'll see.
 
Archer2 said:
We should be better this year. Ian and Drake merely showed glimpses of the players they could become. Elliot was improperly used and immature. VAL was serviceable. I’d like to see a scoring wing and a backup five added but I think the pieces are there to have a top 3 ACC team if properly utilized. Hubert’s system is my biggest concern. I see a lack of fundamentals and discipline that hasn’t been addressed in four years. That must change or I can’t see this team reaching their potential and Hubert maintaining his position. I wish Lebo had been let go. Regardless, this appears to be a make or break year for Hubert.
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Completely agree !!!
 
Kool1234567 said:
That’s true….Also Hubert told EC not to take wide open shots and didn’t let him flourish…

How this team will go next year will be known when the take the court….But for me the roster is improved just by the size and length we added…
Click to expand...

Have you seen EC shoot?
 
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