HUGE pickup for the Heels.. especially considering the only other serious choice being considered was Duke. Roy Williams best Coach K once more.. Go Heels! Barnes was considered the No. 1 player in the ESPNU 100. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/mens/news/story?id=4651146 Carolina also picked up Reggie Bullock (#2 SG) and Kendall Marshall (#4 PG) today. Well on their way to another championship!
<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BjWK035jbgc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BjWK035jbgc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> UNC has another good prospect in their hands along with John Henson, and Ed Davis if they both decide to stay another year..... Impressive athlete, combined with his nice Height (6'8) and a 7ft wingspan, NBA comparison: Luol Deng/ Ray Allen... But with that said I still like Perry Jones over Barnes in 2011... -rocketblaze
It looks like UNC can cherrypick its prospects and get anyone it wants at this point. Why isn't there more nationwide hate for them? It's strange because Duke is waaaay down now but people still are happy when they fail and never hesitate to kick them when they're down. If you were to compare it to baseball, the Tarheels would be the Yankees easily, and the primary challenger to their supremacy (ie the Red Sox) would be smaller budget smaller fanbase Blue Devils. It's a good comparison because many people, myself included, grew tired of the Red Sox when they were winning, but it's still a noble thing to run up against the Evil Empire juggernaut and hold your own for a round or two. I guess Duke shot themselves in the foot by breeding an image of haughtiness to their team (and school) but if you really break it down, Duke is always the one having to play more team ball to overcome the disparity in athleticism. UNC on the other hand is the school full of purebreed horses that will posterize you again and again until the whistle blows. There's never been much strategy to that, just outrun, outjump, and outtalent the other guys. And honestly (because I've lived in Chapel Hill for a while) their student base is just as preppy as Duke's without a doubt. A lot of it has to do with the national media's portrayal of the school too...leave it to ESPN to create villains and heros when things are never so cut and dry. Barnes is a good kid from what I've read, and he seems well spoken too. Now that he's a Tarheel however, I will be rooting for him to fail just like I root for more parity everywhere else in the league. But I fully expect UNC to win the championship next year with all the pieces they have coming together.
i think dick vitale is honestly the cause for a lot of duke hate. i mean vitale is all about any ACC school, he rides UNC's jock too, but all through the 90s with duke dominating ESPN and dick vitale going crazy about cameron indoor stadium and such. coach k is still all over the news, with team USA and such, i think its just a carrying over effect.
The Yankees? How? That's a stupid comparison. The Yankees can throw millions on top of millions to any player that they want. The player than is choosing between an extra $50 million dollars, or which team they may like better. How you compare that to college recruiting, I don't have a clue. One of the reasons Barnes listed as coming to UNC was their great business school - but I guess UNC should be hated for being a good academic school as well? It's also pretty stupid to say there's no strategy to their game plan. Roy Williams is a HOF coach, to say his gameplan doesn't involve strategy and just relies on talent is ignorant. I agree with you that UNC's fan base is preppy - but Duke/Durham just gives off an insufferable vibe to me. (Note: maybe bc I went to UNC.) They're also a private school charging $40K a year, whereas UNC is a public school that offers a top-notch education for considerably less. I don't know much about Barnes, but he seems like a great kid. During his interview, one of the questions asked was what does he have to say to Iowa State fans for making them believe they were a real possibility. I couldn't believe someone would actually ask that - you could literally insert any school in that line that a recruit doesn't pick. He handled it extremely well. I don't think a championship is ever a lock - Ed Davis will go pro after this year, and John Henson might as well. We won championships with returning cast of Felton, McCants and May.. and then again with Lawson, Ellington, Hansbrough. I'm hoping a few of our studs do end up staying to win one, but that's always a crap shoot.
I didn't root against Duke until the JJ Redick era, that's when Duke became extremely over rated by the media and the polls. Duke just wasn't that good and they'd start out every year as a top 5 team, get hyped by the media, and generally have a good ACC season (because of their homefield advantage and the refs). Then they'd hit the postseason and get their butts whooped and everyone would call it an upset. Carolina on the other hand has legit talent and deserved their high ranking, so I didn't have problems with them.
Big get for UNC, but then again, what commitment do they get that's not a big get? Iowa State was in his final group of school thanks to the fact that he lives in Ames and his mother works for the university. He also has a teammate that is committed to ISU. That would have been a program-changing commit for McDermott at ISU.
I'm not going to turn this thread into a Duke/UNC argument, but just on this one point: the M.O. with UNC every year is that they can win the championship if they just care enough to play defense. They cared in 2005 and they cared in 2009 and thus they won those years. I never said that Roy Williams had no gameplan, just that it's not difficult to institute a "run-and-gun" when all your players are among the most athletic in the country. Just so long as you motivate them to actually use the world-class muscles they have, you will likely have a 20-pt differential on breakaway lay-ups/dunks alone, and frankly that's how UNC wins and loses (wins when it gets them, loses when it doesn't). Credit Roy for getting his players to move their asses, but don't think for a second that it serves as evidence of fine coaching. Frankly I don't see Duke winning another championship again as long as the one-and-done rule is in effect. All the one-and-done players are going to continue attending the big state schools willing to look the other way on academics and boosters, and normal fans will continue to question the legitimacy of those signings. I hope more kids will take the Brandon Jennings path, because if they can take it the competition is actually better and more suited for them to prepare themselves for the NBA after a year. And college basketball might be saved from endless repetitions of Calipariesque scandals.
Credit Roy for winning 2 national championships in the 6 years he's been there, but don't think for a second that is evidence of fine coaching. Right. Great argument. You win.
Good coaches are ones who can win with any level of talent by getting their players to buy into the offensive sets. When I think of good coaches I think of Bruce Pearl, John Beilein, and Mike Anderson. Roy Williams falls under the category of good recruiter along with Rick Barnes, Calipari, and Pitino. We'll probably never find out how Roy handles coaching a team less athletic than its opponent because that'll never happen, but I'll leave you with this. What happens when UNC doesn't have a point guard with all-NBA speed who can blow by his man and the next two guys as well? Last year without Lawson it was pretty obvious that there was no gameplan except throw it into Hansbrough and hope he scores or gets fouled (the most prolific foul shooter in NCAA history btw, don't even try to legitimize that one to the rest of the college basketball-watching country). I am responding with full awareness that I'm talking to a wall in terms of someone who attended UNC, but realize this: the obnoxiousness of the UNC fanbase is a huge reason the rest of the country considers UNC the Yankees of college basketball.
And yet so far in this thread, you have been the only hater. Somehow I'm not buying this "rest of the country" argument. When you think of good coaches, you think of coaches who have never won national championships. I hope you're never the AD for a basketball program I care about. It's pretty ridiculous how you try to criticize Roy, especially in wake of his two championships in six years. Do you remember how UNC fared pre-Roy? Felton, McCants, and May almost transferred because of Doherty. In came Roy, and two years later they are National Champions. But I guess that had nothing to do with him developing the players, right? Hansbrough, Ellington, Lawson - all developed at least three years under Roy, and won a national championship. To say he isn't an elite coach is just ignorant. Yes, he gets some of the top talent in the country. But he also develops them, and puts them in situations where they can succeed. Dean Smith, considered one of the greatest college basketball coaches ever, has only two championships. The same number as Roy. Coach K has three - one more. If it was easy, Rick Barnes, Calipari, or some other "good recruiter" would have just as many. No matter how you feel about UNC fans or homerism, you just can't discount two championships.
Poor argument b/c you're essentially faulting the "good recruiters" for being..good recruiters. You won't give them credit for being good coaches because of the talent level they bring in. You seem to indicate that they could only be good coaches if they brought in worse players (i.e. did worse at part of their job on purpose) and then still found a way to succeed. Fine, I understand that some guys are getting a lot out of less talent. But you can't use superior talent to bring down their coaches--and especially not when said coaches have had a ton of success. You say there was no gameplan other than...etc.. Well how about considering that the gameplan was tailored to the talent, and he was utilizing Lawson and Hasnbrough as best he could?
