After an impressive start, The Tar Heels are now in a stretch where they can expand their playbook and get more game-time experience for second stringers. This is a valuable time for the Heels as they need to improve depth at the point and at center to decrease their vulnerability.

Key to the Heels success is their play when Raymond Felton is on the bench. That task lies squarely on Quentin Thomas’ shoulders. If he is able to run the offense and play conservative defense, the Heels will be quite a force come the end of March.

UNC has matured so much (as I shake my head). We now see a team that can stay within the offense, play much better help defense, and control the ball fairly well. We haven’t been able to say that since the 1999 team was in their mid-season stretch.

One interesting stat to look at is the proportion of the Heels’ shots that are coming from behind the arc. The Heels are taking 28% of their shots from behind the arc, just like they did last season. Looking historically at a few other years we see that the ‘03 team took 40% of their shots from 3-point land while the 2001 team took 26% and the 1999 team took 25%.

What this proves is the necessity of a big man down low. When teams get it inside to people like Sean May and Brendan Haywood their record improves. Also it shows just how horrendous the offensive focus in 2003 was.

This current team is shooting, pushing tempo, and forcing turnovers extremely well. They need to reduce turnovers and improve rebounding. We’ll hopefully will see the evolution of a backup point guard over the next 6 weeks. If that happens, pack your bags for St. Louis.

UNC finished an NBA-like 16-day stretch including seven games in fine fashion. In this stretch we got to see several different line-ups, several different types of opponents, and a hostile Hoosier crowd.

Clearly the most important person on the team in Raymond Felton. Felton could not play in game one due to an NCAA suspension and the Heels paid. Backing up Felton is Quentin Thomas, a skinny Freshman with a long way to go. Thomas has been lost in the offense several times, had the ball stolen from him, and let opponents whiz by him on defense. Because Thomas needs so much improvement over the next six games, he should get much playing time during this, the easiest, stretch of the schedule. Wes Miller should play quite a bit, too, as Felton’s left wrist recovers from a severe sprain.

The Heels showed a lot of muscle, especially when they trapped on defense. Oddly enough, Roy Williams didn’t utilize the trap much at Indiana and Carolina found itself in a close game. Williams ought to utilize the Carolina 1-3-1 defense with Jawad Williams traveling the baseline, as well. This change would have completely shut down Kentucky’s late-game run.

National Player of the Year candidate Rashad McCants looks even better than last year. McCants has a great stand still jumper, and can post up people down low as well as Vince Carter could. For McCant’s offense to get more complete, he needs to work the right side of the court, and learn to drive left on someone, stop short, and pop a jumper. McCants would be unstoppable at that point.

Sean May has played well, especially in transition. He is doing an outstanding job at rebounding. (He snared 19 rb’s against Kentucky). May has, however, shown shades of last year in missing several <5-footers. His fatal flaw is that he cannot jump. He has much difficulty going up against 7-footers and isn’t mobile enough to play with a lot of people his height.

Jackie Manuel has played well at times. Perhaps Roy Williams’ best signature on this team is that players aren’t doing things that they don’t do well. Case in point: Manuel’s outside shooting. Manuel is horrendous at shooting, but runs like a gazelle and is the team’s best defender.

Marvin Williams has shown some flashes of brilliance and may be just what this team needed to get to the Final Four. Now we have a three-man rotation at the 4 and 5 positions: Jawad, Marvin, Sean. Marvin has shown some stretches, however, when he was totally lost in the offense. This will pass, for sure.

I would love to see Jawad, Sean, and Marvin in at the same time. Jawad Williams needs time at the 3-position, but I’m afraid that all of this time at UNC will leave him ill-prepared for professional basketball in this country. Remember the days when we had 3 decent 7-footers on the team?

UNC enters a 6-game stretch through New Year’s today against a much lower level on competition. The Heels really need to concentrate on non-trapping man-to-man and introducing the 1-3-1. They also need to get as much playing time for the 2 key Freshmen in order to get ready for the formidable ACC schedule.

The ACC looks really tough this year. GT is incredible. Wake Forest is outstanding. Duke will probably knock off Wake for the #3 position. And NCSU has Julius Hodge, the best player there since David Thompson. Maryland, Virginia, and Florida State have what it takes to finish .500 in the league, so there will be no rest for the weary after New Year’s.