I don't know where people come up with 'Roy won't let freshman shine'. Out of all the freshman that did start as freshman, jjax, Paige, Lawson, Hansbrough, Barnes, etc....they were never restricted or told not to go off when playing. I'm not sure I know what you mean. If you mean freshman averaging 20-30 PPG, well then you're right, UNC tends to play more team oriented basketball. Roy doesn't run any ISO's and he doesn't showcase any set player. But whichever Freshman starts for North Carolina, they aren't ordered to limit their scoring and only let non freshman score. Justin Jackson could have had the same numbers he has this year, in his freshman year. He just couldn't hit 3's and wasn't taking charge. That wasn't on Roy, that was on Jackson.
One Thing that's for sure at North Carolina is you aren't going to play 35+ minutes a game. Roy goes to his bench, and subs players frequently. But I guarantee you that if Kevin Knox replaces Justin Jackson next year, and hits his 3's, drives the ball to score, gets to the free throw line consistently. Then He should easily be someone that averages 20 points as a freshman. He will definitely be a starter as a freshman. But if Knox misses his shots, struggles to score and struggles on defense, yes he won't score much and will lose playing time. But that woulda happen in most systems.
If anything, Knox will be luckier as a freshman next year then jjax was. Next year we most likely won't have a huge lineup like this with Meeks and hicks clogging the paint. And it's been like that for many years. With Bradley at the 5, pinson at the 4, Knox at 3, kwill/felton at the 2 and berry at the 1. That starting lineup will have allot of spacing. Knox will absolutely thrive with that rotation. He should consider that allot, because dook will most definitely have bolden back and incoming Wendell carter and possibly Bamba, along with their other 5 star bigs in javin delaurier, Chase Jeter, Sean obi, and vrankovic. Though most will not play much, dook will most likely have 2 bigs in the game consistently and will effect Knox and his ability to drive.
UNC will have Huffman and Manley but playing extremely limited. And Luke maye creates spacing on his own by his ability to pop out past the three and move around much easier then other bigs. I think Huffman will play roughly 8 minutes a game but Manley won't play much at all. So Knox would be able to score easier in Carolinas potential starting lineup, and will be given 25-31 minutes per game possibly more if he breaks out the way I believe he will...
