Realistically even with Cadeau in the mix now will Carolina be a top 25 rated team to start the season?

[IDUNK4HEELS]

Lots of new faces with a great mix of youngsters and ACC tested veterans to build a very competitive team but for everyone to know their role and job on this squad will probably take until January before it can be even considered a well oiled machine.

I personally like that UNC has another early tough schedule which will allow the team to grow as a unit and to quickly find early their strengths and weaknesses and have time to see what players mesh the best together.

Like many others I have seen Cadeau shine against other HIGH SCHOOL players but the pressure on him to perform against more gifted and physical upperclassmen is yet to be determined because immediately “he is not the messiah”.

No question in my mind this year’s team on paper looks vastly superior than last year’s squad with more firepower and upperclassman experience starting and coming off the bench.

Expectations will be high and they should be but expecting immediate results to help erase last season’s tough year needs to be tempered until the team has a REAL chance to jell and patience by the fans although often hard to do by many needs to show up early and often.

Just on name alone Carolina might crack the top 25 preseason poll but I for one would rather see the team earn any ranking they get by winning on the court and let the cards fall as they may…

 

[NorCalTarheel]

Don't forget that Elliott Cadeau has also shined against grown men playing internationally for Sweden.

If there are 25 college basketball teams better than ours, I would like to see them. I would expect a preseason ranking between 10 and 15 with a bump here and there in the early season but a steady climb towards top 10.

Too optimistic?

 

[TarHeelFanJ]

pre-season #18
post-season #4

 

[ChiShankCity]

Wouldn’t be surprised if we were unranked in the preseason. We were bad last year and added no “impact” transfer according to the transfer rankings. Honestly wouldn’t have an issue being unranked. Last year, no one on the roster accomplished anything.

As of right now, I’m thinking it’s a 14-18 team that may hit the top 10 on a random week when a bunch of top 12 teams lose.

But who cares about preseason rankings anyway?

 

[ChapelHeeled]

Top 15 team to start the season...

 

[Tom79]

Kenny Smith mentioned something Elliott Cadeau can mean to a team, Kennt & friend were watching him at one of the events and Kenny was telling his friend how great he thought Elliott was playing, his friend said they were more than 4 minutes in and Elliott hadn't scored, Kenny then said it's about the assists he was racking up as his team led by 12.

 

[DaveChapelle]

I hope all the rankings and prognosticators sleep on us. Have the team enter the season feeling disrespected.

 

[39 Feet Above Sea Level]

At least we won’t tip off the season with unrealistic expectations (Me, last year).
It’s time to find out what kind of coach Hubert can be. I like our talent and hope
to see our staff coach them to their potential.

 

[DSouthr]

I don't care where we are ranked pre-season, those rankings means absolutely nothing but pressure to live up to a ranking you can not finish with. Being pre-season #1 last season did not help us at all but it darn sure hurt us. Rankings mean nothing until something is earned about the only thing positive about them is giving sports sites that give out these rankings more hits to their site.

We are very likely to have some early bumps while integrating so many new players and a freshman starting PG. While I think we will see some cool individual play early on, we will be far better once we get them fully integrated and playing together as a team. We never really came together as a team last season, had some good games for sure but nothing was consistently unified as a team, it was more individual play because the parts just did not fit right. We came together really late the season before and did so primary due to Manek being such a great fit, far from the greatest talent we could have brought in but, garcia was more talented but Manek was simply the best fit. I look at guys like Ingram and Withers as great fits more so than great talents.

One aspect for next season I have yet to see discussed how quickly these incoming new players find themselves fully vested in this team. What I mean by this is we spent the whole season trying to get nance to play like this is his team as opposed to him deferring to the returning fab 4. He was one of the main cogs of his former team before coming to UNC but at UNC he just seemed to defer to every one else like he was not really 100% vested, like he was almost scared to step up, like he was a secondary player. WE have INgram that was a primary guy for Stanford, Withers was considered the 1 guy that Louisville could not afford to lose, Ryan was a huge cog for his former team, Wojick was big for his former team, where as Cadeau comes to us now fully feeling like this is his team. Finding their fit, believing they are perfectly fitted to UNC just as much as anyone else is has been a problem. I think manek struggled with that for a good bit of his year with us, finally seemed to come in to being 100% vested in his UNC team late season and we as a team go on that run to the natty game. This team needs to go from being centered around RJ and Bacot to being owned just as much by the incoming guys, don't defer to RJ and Bacot any more than they will defer to you, be a 100% vested guy on the same level as RJ and Bacot for ownership of this team. How good this team can be may fully rest on this very question.

 

[bluetoe]

Kenny Smith mentioned something Elliott Cadeau can mean to a team, Kennt & friend were watching him at one of the events and Kenny was telling his friend how great he thought Elliott was playing, his friend said they were more than 4 minutes in and Elliott hadn't scored, Kenny then said it's about the assists he was racking up as his team led by 12.

hope he reminds us of this...

 

[tarheel0910]

Every "way too early" poll had us between 15-20 before Cadeau reclassified. I see no reason we won't be ranked once the season starts. Doesn't really mean anything, though.

 

[dtodd4475]

The pre season ranking does not concern me one way or the other. High, medium, low, it's always a guess before new rosters even begin to play together.

This year for UNC, with all the key new faces, both vetern plug-ins and freshmen, it should take awhile to develop a chemistry and establish who and how this group will attack come tournament time.

Keeping track of the NET and the RPI rankings throughout the year matters to me, and the selection committee, but the media or coach's polls are mostly irrelevant.

 

[JimmyinVA]

I hope all the rankings and prognosticators sleep on us....

nick saban has the perfect term for accolades and high rankings: "rat poison"

 

[bluetoe]

nick saban has the perfect term for accolades and high rankings: "rat poison"

yep. I always want us to be underrated, so much so that we have to surpass whatever rank we have. Never happens that way though.

 

[TarHeelFanWV]

I expect to be in the top 10. Not many teams have more than Cadeau, Davis, and Bacot, combined with everything else..

 

[tarheel0910]

nick saban has the perfect term for accolades and high rankings: "rat poison"

That's easy for him to say when he always has all of the accolades and high rankings.

 

[Ozheelfan]

I want the exact opposite of last season: start off totally overlooked and finish…. Well, one can hope!

 

[tarheels0015]

Hope not , they need to play with a brick on there shoulder & earn there respect back in the polls slowly

 

[bluetoe]

Hope not , they need to play with a brick on there shoulder & earn there respect back in the polls slowly

but then again, I'd settle for from the get-go crushing other teams, seeing them driven off the court before us, and hearing the lamentation of their fans.

 

[Archer2]

but then again, I'd settle for from the get-go crushing other teams, seeing them driven off the court before us, and hearing the lamentation of their fans.

 

[bluetoe]

LOL. If I knew how to photoshop, Conan would be wearing a Carolina blue uni.

 

[DSouthr]

but then again, I'd settle for from the get-go crushing other teams, seeing them driven off the court before us, and hearing the lamentation of their fans.

I want to see them draw tears from opposing fan bases from game 1 on, I want to enjoy the taste of those other fan bases tears like a fine aged Bourbon, dukie blends of tears are especially tasty! LOL

 

[tarheel0910]

Up to 15 in ESPN poll.

WTE Top 25: Kevin McCullar Jr.'s return edges Kansas over Duke for No. 1

Wednesday's NBA draft early-entry withdrawal deadline -- the busiest in recent memory -- shuffled our latest rankings and cemented a new No. 1.

www.espn.com

 

[dtodd4475]

For me, I will be patient with how the multitude of both young and seasoned additions mesh. Upside is there, but that is a daunting task to construct that by NCAA tourney time. I think a 15 to 20 pre season guess is fair. Plenty of room for movement either way with the transient roster.

 

[IDUNK4HEELS]

I noticed a post today that CBS has Carolina 15th in their preseason poll.

 

[gary-7]

Lots of new faces with a great mix of youngsters and ACC tested veterans to build a very competitive team but for everyone to know their role and job on this squad will probably take until January before it can be even considered a well oiled machine.

I personally like that UNC has another early tough schedule which will allow the team to grow as a unit and to quickly find early their strengths and weaknesses and have time to see what players mesh the best together.

Like many others I have seen Cadeau shine against other HIGH SCHOOL players but the pressure on him to perform against more gifted and physical upperclassmen is yet to be determined because immediately “he is not the messiah”.

No question in my mind this year’s team on paper looks vastly superior than last year’s squad with more firepower and upperclassman experience starting and coming off the bench.

Expectations will be high and they should be but expecting immediate results to help erase last season’s tough year needs to be tempered until the team has a REAL chance to jell and patience by the fans although often hard to do by many needs to show up early and often.

Just on name alone Carolina might crack the top 25 preseason poll but I for one would rather see the team earn any ranking they get by winning on the court and let the cards fall as they may…

Cmon bro. Is that really a question?

 

[gary-7]

Wouldn’t be surprised if we were unranked in the preseason.

Of course you wouldn't.

 

[gobblercalls]

If this team has been constructed from the best HD can get, both portal and high school, and is not ranked top 15 at the end of the year, then we have a coaching problem. Where they are ranked preseason makes no difference at all. Expectations should rise each year until we've gotten back to the point that top 10 is taken for granted.

 

[imajericho]

We will be ranked preseason but whether we deserve to be is a question.

 

[ChiShankCity]

Of course you wouldn't.

Of course? I specifically said I think this is a top 14-18 team. lol.

It just wouldn't surprise me if they're unranked in the preseason, nor would I give a crap.