University of North Carolina Athletics
2009-10 Season Preview
October 11, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 11, 2009
by Steve Kirschner, Associate Athletic Director for Communications
Carolina Basketball blends a little bit of new and old as the Tar Heels play their 100th season, this time as the defending national champions. Last year UNC defeated Michigan State to win the school's fifth NCAA Tournament crown and the second in five seasons under Hall of Fame head coach Roy Williams.
Gone from that championship squad are the cornerstones of the winningest four-year run in Carolina history - Tyler Hansbrough, the most honored and accomplished Tar Heel ever; Ty Lawson, the 2009 Bob Cousy Award winner as the nation's best point guard; Wayne Ellington, the Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four; Danny Green, who played in more wins than any Tar Heel; and Bobby Frasor, the team's best defender and a clutch three-point shooter.
Unlike the 2005-06 season, when the most experienced returning player following the national championship averaged three points a game, the 2009-10 Tar Heels include eight returnees led by seniors Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson. The duo has combined for 131 starts and more than 1,500 points.
Ginyard started all 39 games at small forward in 2007-08 when Carolina won 36 times, including the ACC regular-season and Tournament titles and reached the Final Four. The Alexandria, Va., native is a fifth-year senior. He received a medical hardship waiver last year due to a stress fracture in his left foot. He underwent surgery in October and returned to play in three games in late December and early January but was unable to finish the season.
Ginyard has scored 620 points, (an average of 5.6 per game) with a high of 6.9 ppg as a junior. He won Carolina's defensive player of the year award in 2007 and 2008, and earned All-ACC Tournament honors and was the leading vote-getter on the coaches' ACC all-defensive team as a junior.
"Marcus's health is better than it's been in the last year and a half," says Williams. "He's got his explosiveness back and he's more confident than he's been in a long time."
Ginyard will begin the season at the two-guard, but Williams envisions him playing any of four positions, including point guard.
"He has enough savvy to handle that," adds Williams. "I think it's a great asset to have someone with Marcus's kind of versatility."
Ginyard, a team captain in 2008, will again provide leadership. However, Williams says his role should be different than the one David Noel played in 2006.
"I do believe Marcus will be the main leader, but he has more help," says Williams. "He has Deon (Thompson) who has been through a great deal himself. Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller played big roles as freshmen, Will Graves has played some, and Larry Drew gained valuable experience last year. I think we are going to ask Marcus to be a great leader, but it is not going to be all-consuming like it was at times for David Noel."
Thompson, a 6-8 forward from Torrance, Calif., should become the 63rd Tar Heel to score 1,000 points. He enters the season with 907, an average of 7.9 per game. Last year, he averaged a career-best 10.6 points and 5.7 rebounds per game while shooting 49.2 percent from the floor. He has scored in double figures 38 times in 115 games, including 22 times as a junior. He played arguably his four finest games of the season in marquee matchups against Kentucky (career-high 20 points), Notre Dame (19 points and 13 rebounds), at Duke (10 of his 14 points in the first half) and in the NCAA title-game win over Michigan State (nine first-half points).
"Deon is much more prepared to handle a leadership role," says Williams. "It will be good for him. Sometimes in the past he has gotten too tough on himself. But now he can't allow himself just to focus on what he's doing. He can't allow the tough moments to dominate him because he has to be more of a leader. That will help him a great deal."
Sophomore forwards Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller and point guard Larry Drew II gained valuable experience in the NCAA title run and are primed for feature roles this season.
Davis averaged 6.7 points and 6.6 rebounds, the second-highest figure on the team. He led Carolina with 65 blocked shots, including six at Virginia Tech. He finished fourth in the ACC in blocks per game (1.7) and earned a spot on the ACC's All-Freshman team. Davis led UNC in rebounding 12 times, including the national championship game when he had 11 points and eight rebounds.
"Ed has tremendous ability to rebound the ball in a crowd," says Williams. "The ball seems to find his hands. He is an exceptional shot blocker, which really helps erase some of his teammates' defensive mistakes."
The 6-10 native of Richmond, Va., scored in double figures eight times last year, including three postseason games. He had a season-high 15 points against in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
"Ed wants to be a complete player," says Williams. "He doesn't want to be thought of as just a banger and a bruiser, a rebounder and a shot blocker. He knows he has some offensive skills he really wants to improve on and that is what he focused on in the offseason."
Zeller started the first two games of last season in place of the injured Hansbrough but missed the next 23 games because of a broken left wrist. The seven-footer from Washington, Ind., scored 18 points in the season-opener against Penn, and then was injured on a breakaway dunk against Kentucky. He returned on February 18th and played in the final 13 games. He scored an ACC-high of eight points against Georgia Tech and grabbed eight rebounds in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Williams says the fact Zeller played during the year-end stretch will pay immediate dividends this season.
"It's mind-boggling the level of comfort and amount of knowledge Tyler gained by playing in those last 13 games," says Williams. "He will be a completely different player early in the season than we would have seen had he not played. He knows how physical the game is, plus the speed, the power and strength you need to be successful. He learned you can't lose your concentration, you have to play every possession, things he would not have known if he hadn't played in those games."
Drew II was one of six Tar Heels to appear in every game last year. The fleet-footed 6-2 guard from Encino, Calif., averaged almost 10 minutes a game and had 74 assists and 45 turnovers. He played some of his best basketball in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments, handing out 13 assists with just three turnovers in 72 minutes of postseason action.
Williams knows there will be plenty of attention on Drew II as he headlines a group of players vying for the role of running the attack.
"Larry understands the focus on him. He will enjoy that part of it, of being extremely important to our team. I think with all the work he has done this summer he will benefit from that challenge."
Drew II scored 53 points (nine in the last 17 games) with a season-high five at Michigan State in early December and handed out a high of seven assists against Chaminade.
Williams expects Drew II to mature into the role similar to how other young guards have developed.
"Freshmen point guards don't understand the intensity you have to have on every single play," says Williams. "Freshmen point guards don't understand you have to dominate the entire game. You call the defenses, talk to people, call the offensive plays. A freshman point guard sometimes just goes out and plays. A sophomore point guard can remember all the things we've talked about and worked on in practice every day.
"Larry's play in the ACC Tournament and in particular the first round of the NCAA Tournament (five assists) gave him some confidence, and it should have," adds Williams. "Those minutes were important and he should use them as a springboard to begin this season."
Will Graves, a 6-6 junior swing man from Greensboro, N.C., missed the final 18 games last year for violating team rules. He averaged 4.0 points with a season-high of 10 against Evansville. He also had nine points against Rutgers, eight vs. Kentucky, seven in the loss to Boston College and six at Wake Forest. He has made 37 percent of his three-point attempts and has improved greatly on the defensive end.
"Will is an extremely important part of our team because he is the best perimeter shooter," says Williams. "He is a tremendous threat to shoot the ball from really deep and that can open up the court for the rest of his teammates. With his size and strength and power, he can also be a big-time offensive rebounder. Over the years he has learned to slide his feet and I think he can be a really good defensive player, as well."
Graves is key because Williams says identifying consistent shooters and the lack of experience and depth along the perimeter are his biggest concerns leading into the season.
Senior Marc Campbell (Raleigh, N.C.) and sophomore Justin Watts add depth in the backcourt. Watts, a 6-4 native of Durham, N.C., played in 27 games, and scored a season-high nine against Chaminade. He played three minutes in the first half of the NCAA South Regional final against Oklahoma and played well in that stint.
"Justin really improved defensively," says Williams. "His biggest challenge is to take care of the basketball. Athletically he gives you a chance because his explosiveness allows him to do things defensively and allows him to get the ball off the backboard. If he gets more fundamentally sound passing the ball and knocks in some shots, he's going to be able to help us a lot."
The Tar Heels welcome a five-man freshman class that reminds Williams of the Hansbrough, Frasor, Green, Ginyard and Mike Copeland class four years ago. "This is a strong, talented group; it's a nucleus class," says Williams. "It's our staff's job to build around these kids for the next couple of years."
John Henson, a 6-10 forward, attended Sickles High School in Tampa, Fla.
"John will begin the season on the perimeter as a three and I think he will stay there all season," says Williams. "He has tremendously long arms and will probably block more shots than any perimeter player in college basketball. With Ed (Davis) and Deon (Thompson), we may block more shots than any team I've ever coached. John has the ability with his length to hurt you inside and also step out and put the ball on the floor or shoot it."
Leslie McDonald, a 6-4 guard from Memphis, Tenn., attended Briarcrest Christian High in nearby Eads.
"Leslie is sound fundamentally and a very good shooter," says Williams. "We hope and think he can develop into a great shooter. He has a wonderful mid-range game where he can drive into that 12 to 16 foot range and score. He's very good defensively. We'll ask him to handle the ball some at the point and I think he will be able to handle that. He's just a really good all-around basketball player."
Dexter Strickland, a 6-3 guard from Rahway, N.J., attended St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth.
"He's a tremendous athlete with speed and quickness," says Williams. "Dexter has played some point guard and we are going to ask him to play more point guard. Defensively, it's been a long time since we've had a guy like him. He's such a threat with his speed and quickness. He will be able to push the ball and run with the guys when they have the ball at a pace that is hard for people to match."
David Wear and Travis Wear, 6-10 forwards from Huntington Beach, Calif., attended Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.
"David and Travis are fundamentally sound basketball players with size who both have tremendous attitudes and work ethics," says Williams. "They handle the ball well and can score inside and outside. I am impressed that their school won two state titles in what we know is a very competitive high school system. They will be able to do a lot of things that will help our team win games, too."
Williams begins his 22nd season as a head coach with the third-highest winning percentage (.811) in history and just six wins shy of 600. The Tar Heels have won ACC regular-season titles and earned No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons. Duplicating those feats certainly will be a challenge given the personnel losses from a year ago.
"We had two unbelievable threats in Lawson and Hansbrough that are hard to match, hard to simulate and hard to replace," Williams says. "You're talking about the most explosive guard and the best inside scorer in college basketball.
"This preseason will involve a lot of decision-making. Can we play exactly the same way? In 2006 we didn't have to change the way we played very much because we had Tyler Hansbrough replacing Sean May. It was an easier transition, even though we were counting on so many freshmen. But we had maybe the greatest leader in David Noel that I have ever been around.
"This year we will probably change the way we play a little bit. We'll make sure the personnel will still fit what we do. You will see more team play. There will be fewer situations where we move the ball two or three times and then our guy goes ahead and beats his man. That's what we've done the last couple of years. Our guys, if we gave them a little advantage, they could take advantage of that. What we will have to do this year is give our guys a big advantage.
"When I say change the way we play, I don't mean pace of play. There are a lot of different things we can do in a basketball game but slowing the pace is not going to be one of them."
Regardless of the change in personnel, Williams is excited to begin another season.
"The quality of the kids we have and the eagerness they have is something we are all going to enjoy working with. I know I am going to enjoy coaching this team because of the character of the kids. They're going to play their tails off when they walk on the court. That's for certain."
