University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Notebook
November 13, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
Roy Williams indicated on Wednesday afternoon he plans to use the same starting lineup on Friday night against North Carolina Central that he used in last week's exhibition victory over Belmont Abbey, which means he'd start J.P. Tokoto, Marcus Paige , Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks and Justin Jackson.
That means Jackson is poised to be the tenth freshman under Williams to start his first game as a Tar Heel (one of those, Quentin Thomas, was enlisted as a starter due to Raymond Felton's absence). That list includes a fairly decorated group that includes Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Harrison Barnes and Marcus Paige, and it also includes one fairly consistent trend among their first-game results—the freshmen have been consistently inconsistent in their debut games.
Hansbrough, predictably, had the best first game performance, as he had 21 points in 28 minutes in an 83-80 win over Gardner-Webb at the outset of the 2005-06 season. Ellington and Brandan Wright had ten points apiece the next season, and Barnes put up 14 points in an 80-66 win over Lipscomb in the 2010-11 opener.
But there have also been some opening game struggles. Nate Britt had three assists and three turnovers in last year's 84-61 win over Oakland, Bobby Frasor had five turnovers (but also had seven assists) in that win over Gardner-Webb, and even the unflappable Paige had only six points, zero assists and four turnovers in his inaugural performance.
By the way, it's probably not a coincidence that of the four best teams of the Williams era—2005, 2008, 2009 and 2012—none regularly started a freshman. But Williams realizes the game has changed even since his relatively recent return to Chapel Hill.
“There is a fascination with freshmen,” he said of the current college game. “And most of the freshmen nowadays are so much more worldly. Their game is so much more evolved. They've done more things, been more places. They aren't in awe, they don't walk out the first night and look out and say, 'Oh, my gosh.' They walk out and say, 'Everybody in here is looking at me.' That's their attitude. And so they are able to do much more than they did many years ago.”
Jackson has been Carolina's leading scorer in each of the two exhibition games.
Preseason over: The Tar Heels have found a home in the top five of several preseason polls, and the top 10 of virtually every poll. That's a fun way to pass the miserable non-basketball months of the year. But this year's marquee player on the Carolina roster knows the hard work begins now.
“In the preseason, it's always fun to project who could end up where,” Marcus Paige said on Wednesday. “But now that the season is here, those projections are done. My freshman year, we were ranked in the top 10. My sophomore year, we were ranked in the top 15. I'm not sure those were warranted, especially my freshman year. That kind of stuff is out the window now, and now it depends on how you play from game to game. It's time to hone in and focus and play your best at the time that it matters.”
Outside activities: Not that you needed more of a reason to be excited about the dawn of a new basketball season, but one of the most popular halftime shows in Smith Center history will be in town on Friday night—the Frisbee-catching dog crew Olate Dogs. A full list of this year's promotions can be found here. Tickets for Friday's game against North Carolina Central are available.
