...I'm sure more here than just our venerable friend @mikeirbyusa remember this Tar Heel reference from my youth.
With Tony sadly departed, some of y'all have posted some nice examples of past teams that have had to resort to non-traditional Small-ball lineups, such as PJ playing PF with JMac in the middle. But I can't help but seeing maybe a stronger parallel with the legendary 1976-77 team (my all-time emotional favorite team, along with the past two seasons).
Endulge me in some nostalgia if you will.
That team was rightfully a Final Four favorite entering the season with some Heels fans calling them the "Dream Team" (long before that moniker was appropriated by the Olympic pros) with good reason, given the starting lineup of:
Phil Ford - Jr. 6'2 PG (GOAT)
Jon Kuester - Sr. 6'2 SG (who could slide to the Point flawlessly)
Walter Davis - Sr. 6'6 SF ("Sweet-D", future NBA 2-Guard)
Mike O'Koren - Fr. 6'7 PF (natural 3-man playing the 4 - today we would call him a "Hybrid")
Tommy LaGarde - Sr. 6'10 C (elite traditional 4/5 Big with an NBA face-up game to boot)
I mean wow. Four future 1st-round draft picks (all would have been Lottery today), and Kuester had a cup of coffee in the league as well. Unfortunately LaGarde suffered a season-ending knee injury and we were seemingly screwed as proven post depth was a big issue. All we had left to try to replace LaGarde were three unproven Freshman Bigs (sound familiar?):
Rich Yonaker - 6'9 (today we would call him a "Stretch-4")
Jeff Wolf - 6'10 (traditional Big w/ ok post skills)
Steve Krafcisin - 6'9 (traditional Big w/ a nice touch but a bit of a stiff)
Dean elected to rotate the 3 Bigs in the Center slot, thus his nickname for them "Yonwolfsin".
Yonaker usually got the start IIRC because his offensive skills were more advanced, but he struggled guarding more physical Bigs, and it was a constant rotation among the three.
Some here have theorized Brooks will start this season as he is the most advanced of the trio and has the Stretch ability as well. Maybe this season's Center will be "Brook-huff-ley", with the experienced guys playing around them in various configurations.
Granted, it's hard to match the '77 starters' resumes --- I mean, Davis and Ford would be the next two NBA Rookies-of-the-Year respectively, O'Koren was a future All-American who would be the 6th overall draft pick in 1980, and despite two bad injuries in college Tommy LaGarde was the 9th overall pick in 1977 and went on to have a strong NBA career (that was also eventually cut short by injuries). However that '77 team had very little proven depth anywhere, whereas this season's Heels team will at least have three or four strong bench pieces aside from the frosh Bigs. And of course we know better than to underestimate the core of JB and Theo, who just happen to be sporting a Natty already
Now Tony is no Tommy LaGarde (at least not yet), but he was a similarly huge loss for us who could have blossomed into a big-time player of potentially similar impact this season. However, another factor to consider in our favor is that LaGarde didn't go down until well into the ACC schedule, so "Yonwolfsin" was an improvised late-season fix. At least "Brookhuffley" will have an entire season to hone their collective games and learn by doing on the fly.
I, like many of y'all, think it'll be fun to watch.
With Tony sadly departed, some of y'all have posted some nice examples of past teams that have had to resort to non-traditional Small-ball lineups, such as PJ playing PF with JMac in the middle. But I can't help but seeing maybe a stronger parallel with the legendary 1976-77 team (my all-time emotional favorite team, along with the past two seasons).
Endulge me in some nostalgia if you will.
That team was rightfully a Final Four favorite entering the season with some Heels fans calling them the "Dream Team" (long before that moniker was appropriated by the Olympic pros) with good reason, given the starting lineup of:
Phil Ford - Jr. 6'2 PG (GOAT)
Jon Kuester - Sr. 6'2 SG (who could slide to the Point flawlessly)
Walter Davis - Sr. 6'6 SF ("Sweet-D", future NBA 2-Guard)
Mike O'Koren - Fr. 6'7 PF (natural 3-man playing the 4 - today we would call him a "Hybrid")
Tommy LaGarde - Sr. 6'10 C (elite traditional 4/5 Big with an NBA face-up game to boot)
I mean wow. Four future 1st-round draft picks (all would have been Lottery today), and Kuester had a cup of coffee in the league as well. Unfortunately LaGarde suffered a season-ending knee injury and we were seemingly screwed as proven post depth was a big issue. All we had left to try to replace LaGarde were three unproven Freshman Bigs (sound familiar?):
Rich Yonaker - 6'9 (today we would call him a "Stretch-4")
Jeff Wolf - 6'10 (traditional Big w/ ok post skills)
Steve Krafcisin - 6'9 (traditional Big w/ a nice touch but a bit of a stiff)
Dean elected to rotate the 3 Bigs in the Center slot, thus his nickname for them "Yonwolfsin".
Yonaker usually got the start IIRC because his offensive skills were more advanced, but he struggled guarding more physical Bigs, and it was a constant rotation among the three.
Some here have theorized Brooks will start this season as he is the most advanced of the trio and has the Stretch ability as well. Maybe this season's Center will be "Brook-huff-ley", with the experienced guys playing around them in various configurations.
Granted, it's hard to match the '77 starters' resumes --- I mean, Davis and Ford would be the next two NBA Rookies-of-the-Year respectively, O'Koren was a future All-American who would be the 6th overall draft pick in 1980, and despite two bad injuries in college Tommy LaGarde was the 9th overall pick in 1977 and went on to have a strong NBA career (that was also eventually cut short by injuries). However that '77 team had very little proven depth anywhere, whereas this season's Heels team will at least have three or four strong bench pieces aside from the frosh Bigs. And of course we know better than to underestimate the core of JB and Theo, who just happen to be sporting a Natty already
Now Tony is no Tommy LaGarde (at least not yet), but he was a similarly huge loss for us who could have blossomed into a big-time player of potentially similar impact this season. However, another factor to consider in our favor is that LaGarde didn't go down until well into the ACC schedule, so "Yonwolfsin" was an improvised late-season fix. At least "Brookhuffley" will have an entire season to hone their collective games and learn by doing on the fly.
I, like many of y'all, think it'll be fun to watch.
