As I look at North Carolina's roster at the moment, I don't know why many believe that this isn't a team that can be very good next season.
I'm not saying that North Carolina is the favorite to win March Madness, but this is certainly a team that has a chance to be really good, and honestly, I wouldn't be that surprised if it actually made a deep run come March.
At the end of the day, any season that doesn't result in a national championship is going to be viewed as a disappointment for North Carolina, and I'm not saying this roster is perfect, but I really like what it built. North Carolina was able to add guys like Terrence Brown, Matt Able, and some others in the transfer portal.
Factor that in with an NBA champion head coach, who recently won an NBA championship before being fired by the Denver Nuggets, and there's reason to believe, in my opinion, that North Carolina is going to be very good.
However, that hasn't stopped many from suggesting that the roster is currently a bit underwhelming on paper. I don't agree with that, but I understand the concerns about the lack of a big man.
“North Carolina couldn't woo Dusty May or Tommy Lloyd, so it pivoted to former NBA Finals champion Michael Malone. Is this a stopgap or a real-deal solution for one of the most prestigious basketball programs in the land?
“To his credit, Malone has dove headfirst into what it takes to be a high-major basketball coach. He's attacked the challenges of recruiting overseas and domestically without an issue. But Malone's first roster is a bit underwhelming on paper. Without bigs, it's hard to hold serve against the elite teams in this supersized era of college basketball. That could be UNC's Achilles heel. Greece product Alex Samodurov is a good addition, but there's growing consternation surrounding the status of 7-footer Sayon Keita, who has still not made it to Chapel Hill,” Isaac Trotter wrote.
Not that North Carolina doesn't have a big man on its roster, but with some questions about the four and five positions, I can at least understand where they're coming from. Ultimately, I think North Carolina is going to be heavily focused on an offense that features an elite guard duo, with the bulk of the scoring coming from Brown and Able.
We'll eventually see how that looks, but honestly, I'm pretty excited to see what it looks like.
