{"id":428,"date":"2009-12-02T12:14:01","date_gmt":"2009-12-02T17:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=428"},"modified":"2009-12-02T12:14:01","modified_gmt":"2009-12-02T17:14:01","slug":"charting-a-course-to-march-north-carolina-vs-michigan-st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=428","title":{"rendered":"Charting A Course to March: North Carolina vs. Michigan St."},"content":{"rendered":"

December 1st:\u00a0 #11 North Carolina 89, #9 Michigan St. 82<\/strong>, at Chapel Hill\"ed<\/p>\n

North Carolina:<\/strong><\/p>\n

This team’s relying on a lot of underclassmen, and they’ll only get better as the season goes on, but they look pretty good already.\u00a0 Deon\u00a0Thompson <\/strong>and Marcus\u00a0Ginyard <\/strong>are the unspectacular but\u00a0rock-solid seniors providing\u00a0much needed experience.\u00a0 The\u00a0big-name sophomores are Ed Davis<\/strong>, who’s showing a soft touch to go with\u00a0his superior size and athleticism, and PG Larry Drew II.\u00a0 <\/strong>Davis could be an All-American this year, and if he adds some muscle he could eventually be a force on the next level as well.\u00a0 I’m not convinced that Drew will ever be a star, but he’s already a steady lead guard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bench is made up almost entirely of first-year players (including soph. Tyler Zeller, <\/strong>who missed most of last season with an injury), but that doesn’t mean it’s not really good.\u00a0 John\u00a0Henson<\/strong> is the biggest name among the freshman.\u00a0 He’s a rail-thin, athletic 6’10 forward, who allegedly can also shoot it pretty well.\u00a0 He could be the key to this team if he can emerge as a force at the small forward spot.\u00a0 PG Dexter Strickland <\/strong>showed a lot of ability in this game.\u00a0 The Wear twins <\/strong>also come in with a lot hype.\u00a0 As the year progresses, this could end up being one of the best benches in the nation.\u00a0 They don’t have much depth at guard, and another question for this team will be whether or not the guard play from Drew, Ginyard, and Strickland is good enough to win it all in March.<\/p>\n

Best-Case Scenario:\u00a0 <\/strong>National Champions<\/p>\n

Best Guess: <\/strong>Final Four<\/p>\n

Michigan St:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Spartans have almost everyone back from last year’s team that lost to UNC in the championship.\u00a0 Junior PG Kalin Lucas <\/strong>is the team leader and reigning Big Ten Player of the Year, but he didn’t play a great game here.\u00a0 F Draymond Green <\/strong>really stood out in this game as maybe the most improved player on the team.\u00a0 They need his presence in the post.\u00a0 Raymar Morgan <\/strong>has had\u00a0a lot of injuries and illness to deal with and that probably explains why he’s a disappointment.\u00a0 He led the team in scoring two years ago as a sophomore, but he doesn’t look like a guy that can create his own offense all that much.\u00a0 He had 18 points, but almost all of them came in transition and on alley-oops.\u00a0 <\/strong>A key to this team could be F Delvon Roe<\/strong>.\u00a0 He came in with a lot of hype last year but was underwhelming.\u00a0 He shows flashes of being really good, but can he do it on a consistent basis?<\/p>\n

The three returning guards along with Lucas, Durell Summers, Chris Allen, <\/strong>and Korie Lucious, <\/strong>are all capable of putting up a big game and give this team a level of talent and experience in the backcourt that most teams would love to have.\u00a0 This team showed a lot of heart in coming back from a 16-point half-time deficit in Chapel Hill.\u00a0 They’ll need Green and Roe to avoid foul trouble (both fouled out).<\/p>\n

Best-Case Scenario:\u00a0 <\/strong>National Champions<\/p>\n

Best Guess: <\/strong>Elite Eight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December 1st:\u00a0 #11 North Carolina 89, #9 Michigan St. 82, at Chapel Hill North Carolina: This team’s relying on a lot of underclassmen, and they’ll only get better as the season goes on, but they look pretty good already.\u00a0 Deon\u00a0Thompson … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[844,9],"tags":[564,854,857,851,853,856,141,852,855,43,45,137],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charting-a-course-to-march","category-college-hoops","tag-delvon-roe","tag-deon-thompson","tag-dexter-strickland","tag-draymond-green","tag-ed-davis","tag-john-henson","tag-kalin-lucas","tag-larry-drew-ii","tag-marcus-ginyard","tag-michigan-st","tag-north-carolina","tag-raymar-morgan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}