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There is a 2 ton elephant in the room and no one seems to want to say it, so big mouth me is gonna! Now we have tap danced around the question of why Roy has not had more one & done players and the fact that Ky and duke are getting multiples of them every year now days. Many have themselves convinced it is because of the NCAA investigation, OK, there is some of that for sure but you guys know that ain't all of it, you do know that right?
We can all accept that UNC is not looked at as the most one & done friendly program out there, I hope no one disagrees with that statement. The real question is why is UNC looked at that way and honestly, it really is not hard to understand. But in order to understand it you have to take off your UNC fan hat and blue tinted glasses and look at this from the kid's point of view. I can give you 100s of reasons why a highly talented player should play for UNC but none of those things matter if they do not interest the kid. We want to talk about history but these kids are looking ahead, not back, we need to understand that.
So here is the 2 ton elephant that I already know is likely to piss off a lot of folks but I am gonna tell ya what you need to understand more so than what you want to hear. So lets go back in time, Roy just won his very first NCAA championship as a head coach with the help of a one & done player named Marvin Williams. Problem was we pretty much lost our entire team after that title winning season. IT looked bleak for the next season but hey, winning the title was well worth it.
Then we bring in this Kid named Tyler and he set the world on fire as a freshman and everywhere you could hear folks whisper after that freshman season, #50 will be one & done because he will go in the lotto. Well Tyler didn't go as a one & done, in fact he played 4 fantastic years for us and we loved him. Problem was on the recruiting trail the anti UNC folks were pitching, see how Roy held Tyler from the NBA? Not everyone bought that line of bull, we brought in a great class the very next season and Tyler ended up winning the natty his senior season but there were whispers, look Tyler was held back for 4yrs, Ty lawson was held out till he was a Jr, Ellington same thing, see we told ya Roy holds his players back. Heads did start turning, of course Brandan Wright being one & done helped but recruits started questioning.
But Roy brought in what appeared to be a mega class after that last natty, Henson, Dexter, the Wear twins and had Zeller and Ed Davis (who was also suggested should have been one & done but Roy held him back, the list grows). And in that class, can only be described as one of if not the single most disappointing class ever at UNC, up there with Fing & BMo for sure. That class not only did not live up to expectations but in that freshman season we had a NCAA record for games missed by players with injury. We had 2 season ending injuries to starters and most of our 2 deep roster missed games due to injury. Henson was our best player in that class but felt he was a wing and not a 4 and it was not until the NIT that he finally seemed to embrace his real position, Dexter really underwhelmed and Zeller got hurt early and sat most of the season. Many felt Dexter and Henson would very likely be one & done guys but they were not and yep, the rumors about Roy holding his player back from the NBA began to pick up steam. As Kalipari is making love to the one & done rule, rumors were of Roy holding his players out of the draft, portraying Roy as anti one & done player, which never was the case but the negative recruiting sure didn't tell you it was BS. But in the end Henson and Zeller along with Kendal and Reggie, we came close but Creighton decided they needed to take kendal out and we know the rest of that.
But here is where things really took a turn against us and began to feed the negative recruiting, we brought in (in Henson and Zeller's last season) James Michael McAdoo and PJ. Now don't know if you guys recall but I do, in that Micky D game JMM played in he was co-MVP along with Anthony Davis. It was like kaliparo got one and Roy got one, lets see who does best with his kid. JMM was absolutely considered to be a one & done level talent and he barely played his freshman season, understandable because he was behind Zeller and Henson but the deeper truth is JMM was not nearly the level of talent that Anthony Davis was. But fact and perception are 2 very different things. Even playing so little as a freshman there were still folks saying JMM would be a lotto guy if he comes out now, baffeled my mind but you guys saw it. JMM didn't go one & done or 2 and thru he left after a Jr season and frankly never really played up to anything close to his incoming hype. On the recruiting scene it was spun as JMM knew he better get out of there before he drops out of the draft totally, Roy has already caused him to drop out of the first round, dah dah dah dah dah.
WE got Harrison Barnes, finally the Roy is not one & done friendly rumors can stop, Barnes was the top player in his class and duke got kyri Irving who some as well felt was number 1. There is it again, like JMM and Anthony Davis we got Barnes and the dukies got Irving, lets see who does best by the kids and as we already know, Irving was hurt most of his freshman season but still went one & done and Barnes came back for his soph season. Yeah, Barnes came back because the the potential of a NBA lock out but the negative recruiting didn't find the need to mention that, just that yet again Roy held his player out of the draft, again, oh and by the way K didn't.
Now all the sudden the negative recruiters had a list of names they could roll off of who should have been one & done from UNC to compare to the list of names of players their school did see go one & done and not to mention in the mean while Ky wins a natty led by 3 freshmen and a couple short years later so does duke. You add in the you do want to play in the NCAA tourney and have a chance to win a =natty in your only season in college don't ya, what if UNC gets a post season ban in your only college season, better not risk that.
And there ya have it, a bunch of circumstances that on their on mean little but when spun together and crafted at the hands of someone looking to negatively recruit against UNC paints the picture these kids see today, that Roy is not a coach that helps you get in to the draft as quickly as kalipari or K or Self, or a few others. This being spoken by multiple school recruiters, not just duke or Ky but now everyone wants to use it against us, it has become epidemic.
Time cures all things, been a while since we had a absolute one & done kid, Jackson never was considered your prototype one & done mostly because he played in a private school league. The guys that were touted to be one & done but ended up not being that at UNC are not really guys being recruited today played with so it does not impact them as much when someone says JMM or Barnes, actually it may help us now considering they play in the NBA for Golden State, so they don't want to use those names against us any more. The NCAA clouds are parting, for the most part already have for men's basketball so that is not a thing they can hit us with either.
I think we will get a one & done from the 2017 class but it is really important perception wise for us to get more that the one & done we get actually becomes one and done. We do not need another name added to their list so they can see, look, there is another one!
WE have been branded as anti mega talented player and it is hard to lose a brand like that, Ky and duke have now branded themselves as one & done friendly and that brands feeds on itself. How we are branded is why we are not getting these top kids and why Ky and duke are, the truth does not matter if the lie is repeated enough times...Now the lie matters and that is going to take a while to correct...
