
{"id":19330,"date":"2011-06-30T08:52:14","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T12:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=19330"},"modified":"2011-06-30T08:52:14","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T12:52:14","slug":"returning-team-reminiscent-of-2009-heels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/06\/30\/returning-team-reminiscent-of-2009-heels\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning team reminiscent of 2009 Heels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/06\/30\/returning-team-reminiscent-of-2009-heels\/landreth-mug-26\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-19331\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/landreth-mug3.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"landreth-mug\" width=\"100\" height=\"134\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-19331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/landreth-mug3.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/landreth-mug3-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/landreth-mug3-75x100.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>By Eddy Landreth<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The 2009 North Carolina team showed what a combination of experience and talent can accomplish in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s college basketball.<\/p>\n<p>That team steamrolled the competition on the way to the NCAA title, exposing the rest of the field for all its weaknesses. This team has the potential to do the same.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had five or six team that I thought, if they get lucky, if things go well, that they have a chance to win a national championship,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d coach Roy Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That is the same kind of thing I think with this team.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The irony is that UNC is a school with a tradition of sending its greatest players off to the NBA early with the blessings of its coach, sometimes even at the urging of its coach.<\/p>\n<p>Dean Smith practically pushed Michael Jordan out the door after his junior season. Can you really imagine any other coach in the country even suggesting, particularly at that time, that a player like Jordan should leave early?<\/p>\n<p>Williams may not push his guys out the door, but he holds it open. He gives them all the information he can before they make the decision to stay or return, and he also gives his blessing. Williams understands how much money is involved and he knows the dream of practically every kid he recruits is to play in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>Yet in 2009, Williams had the closest thing we will probably see to the old senior-oriented teams of years gone by, and it showed. Those kids swam against the stream by returning to school and rewarded themselves with memories they will carry for life.<\/p>\n<p>The team returning this fall will not be as experienced as the 2009 team, but it may be every bit as talented. In Harrison Barnes, the team has a truly rare individual. There just are not many players with Barnes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 talent and potential who would come back for a second year of college.<\/p>\n<p>But he did. And because he is coming back, along with John Henson and Tyler Zeller, two more players who could have been drafted in the first round, Carolina is once again going to have a monster of a team.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There was one point I thought we were going to lose all three,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There was one point I thought we were going to get all three back, and everything in between. I was not surprised by John and Z because of the conversations I had with them. I had gotten the impression that was the way they were leaning.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Harrison is a great poker player,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williams said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153or could be. I really went back and forth on what I thought he would do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Barnes certainly did not return to lose.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just think about the Kentucky loss [in the round of eight],\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Barnes said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153With so much at stake, I think they had more of an edge than we did. When we lost that game, our season ended.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just having that chip on your shoulder, just knowing if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come out with the right edge your season can be ended like that, I think that is going to keep us on our edge all year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>About the only hurdle one can envision stopping this club is injury \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and taking note of all the injuries in 2008, \u00e2\u20ac\u212209 and \u00e2\u20ac\u212210, that possibility is very real.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, there is no reason to be pessimistic as the heat of the summer increases. Now is the time to relish what is to come and the fact that those big three did return to school.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m advising the Carolina people,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williams said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLook forward to it; enjoy every day; enjoy every game. And if some good things keep happening at the end of the year, enjoy it even more.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2009 North Carolina team showed what a combination of experience and talent can accomplish in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s college basketball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":19331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[431],"class_list":["post-19330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19330"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19398,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19330\/revisions\/19398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}