By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — With a more veteran team and many options on his overhauled North Carolina roster, will Coach Hubert Davis play a bigger rotation?
That answer may come later, but he didn’t offer one at men’s basketball media day, reiterating that he doesn’t have any philosophy on the rotation size he prefers.
“My philosophy is the same — prepare and practice and play really well, you’ll play,” said Davis, who had six players transfer, five of whom didn’t do enough to earn the coach’s trust enough to get consistent playing time off the bench.
In the NCAA championship game against Kansas in 2022, Davis continued to play a tight rotation and admitted that his players got tired in the second half. Last season, he mostly stuck to a seven-player rotation.
“I don’t have a philosophy of, ‘I have a five-man rotation; I only want to play eight guys,’ “ Davis said. “I don’t have a number. But if you prepare and you practice and you play well, you will play.”
This season, Davis has three fifth-year players in center Armando Bacot, and guards Cormac Ryan (a Notre Dame transfer) and Paxton Wojcik (a Brown transfer), two seniors in guard RJ Davis and Jae’Lyn Withers (a Louisville transfer) and two juniors in wing Harrison Ingram (a Stanford transfer) and center James Okonkwo (a West Virginia transfer).
When you consider that UNC also has another likely starter in freshman five-star guard Elliot Cadeau, along with sophomore guard Seth Trimble off the bench, it seems that Coach Davis has the potential depth to play lots of players.
With the same approach as during his first two seasons, there’s no way to predict how many players will get regular playing time. The third-year coach may not change his rotation size, depending on how many players earn significant playing time, but he is committed to one change.
“One of the things that I wanted to change — do a better job this year compared to last year — is just our tempo,” Davis said. “I want to play faster. Whether it’s a make or miss, I want us to go.”
Cadeau suggested that he doesn’t expect the rotation won’t be small.
“I think it’s gonna be a lot faster since we have a lot of depth on the bench,” Cadeau said. “Starting five? I think we’re gonna be playing a lot faster because we’re gonna have fresh bodies coming in and out and just a lot more ball movement. We’ve been playing defense together during these few practices, and we just been sharing the ball. And everybody on the team is so unselfish it’s been great.”
Having Cadeau in the lineup, with his ability to sling a long, accurate transition pass to start the fast break, should make that dynamic easier to change.
“No. 1, there needed to be a commitment to play this way,” Davis said. “No. 2, you got to be in shape. And I feel like we’ve checked both of those boxes. So in terms of a tempo standpoint, we’re gonna play faster.”
Playing well in transition is often predicated on rebounding well and creating havoc on the defensive end. UNC did the former last season with a defensive rebounding average (28.3) that was eighth in the country. The latter was lacking, though: the Tar Heels were 324th in the country in forced turnovers at 10.45 per game.
“From a defensive standpoint, I know one of the things that we had to improve on is to find a way to be able to generate steals and deflections and be able to get into the open court,” Davis said. “We’ve made some tweaks and pivots to be able to put us in positions to get those steals and deflections to allow us to get into the open court, and so that we can find more ways to score and be more disruptive on the defensive end.”
Carolina’s 5.4 steals per game were 292nd in the country.
In practice so far, Davis said that the team’s on-the-ball defense is better than last season, with big men able to defend on the perimeter and guards able to hold their own inside.
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“We have that ability to be able to have that versatility on the defensive end,” Davis said. “It allows you to be more creative and do some different things out there.”
Davis suggested that Carolina will become less predictable on defense, able to change “pitches” and keep opponents guessing.
“Last year, it was a lot of man-to-man defense, but there weren’t any changes in terms of different types of looks,” Davis said. “And that’s something that we’ve talked about and I feel like we have the ability to do that because of the individual defense that we have from top to bottom.”
So fans who want to see a bigger rotation are going to have to wait for the season to play out to see if that happens. But you can safely assume there will be a faster tempo.
| Date | Month/day | Scores | Opponent/event (current ranks) | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. BYU in SLC | Exhib. |
| 29 | Wednesday | W, 95–53 | vs. Winston-Salem St. | Exhib. |
| November | ||||
| 3 | Monday | W, 94–54 | vs. Central Arkansas | 1–0 |
| 7 | Friday | W, 87–74 | vs. No. 17 Kansas | 2–0 |
| 11 | Tuesday | W, 89–74 | vs. Radford | 3–0 |
| 14 | Friday | W, 97–53 | vs. N.C. Central | 4–0 |
| 18 | Tuesday | W, 73–61 | vs. Navy | 5–0 |
| Fort Myers Tip-Off | ||||
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 85–70 | vs. St. Bonaventure | 6–0 |
| 27 | Thursday | L, 74–58 | vs. No. 11 Michigan State | 6–1 |
| December | ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge | |||
| 2 | Tuesday | W, 67–64 | at Kentucky | 7–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 7 | Sunday | W, 81–61 | vs. Georgetown | 8–1 |
| 13 | Saturday | W, 80–62 | vs. USC Upstate | 9–1 |
| 16 | Tuesday | W, 77–58 | vs. ETSU | 10–1 |
| CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta | ||||
| 20 | Saturday | W, 71–70 | vs. Ohio State | 11–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 22 | Monday | W, 99–51 | vs. East Carolina | 12–1 |
| 30 | Tuesday | W, 79–66 | vs. Florida State | 13–1, 1–0 ACC |
| January | ||||
| 3 | Saturday | L, 97–83 | at SMU | 13–2, 1–1 |
| 10 | Saturday | W, 87–84 | vs. Wake Forest | 14–2, 2–1 |
| 14 | Wednesday | L, 95–90 | at Stanford | 14–3, 2–2 |
| 17 | Saturday | L, 84–78 | at California | 14–4, 2–3 |
| 21 | Wednesday | W, 91–69 | vs. Notre Dame | 15–4, 3–3 |
| 24 | Saturday | W, 85–80 | at No. 9 Virginia | 16–4, 4–3 |
| 31 | Saturday | W, 91–75 | at Georgia Tech | 17–4, 5–3 |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | W, 87–77 | vs. Syracuse | 18–4, 6–3 |
| 7 | Saturday | W, 71–68 | vs. No. 1 Duke | 19–4, 7–3 |
| 10 | Tuesday | L, 75–66 | at No. 25 Miami | 19–5, 7–4 |
| 14 | Saturday | W, 79–65 | vs. Pittsburgh | 20–5, 8–4 |
| 17 | Tuesday | L, 82–58 | at N.C. State | 20–6, 8–5 |
| 21 | Saturday | W, 77–64 | at Syracuse | 21–6, 9–5 |
| 23 | Monday | W, 77–74 | vs. Louisville | 22–6, 10–5 |
| 28 | Saturday | W, 89–82 | vs. Virginia Tech | 23–6, 11–5 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | W, 67–63 | vs. Clemson | 24–6, 12–5 |
| 7 | Saturday | L, 76–61 | at No. 1 Duke | 24–7, 12–6 |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte | |
| 12 | Thursday | L, 80–79 | Quarterfinals: vs. Clemson | 24–8 |
| NCAA tournament | ||||
| 19 | Thursday | L, 82–78, OT | First round: vs. VCU in Greenville, S.C. | 24–9 |
The class for next season is listed.
| No./ Stars | Class | Player | Pos. | Hgt | Wgt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 star | Freshman | Maximo Adams | SF | 6–7 | 205 |
| 3 star | Freshman | Malloy Smith | CG | 6–5 | 190 |
| 5 star | Freshman | Sayon Keita | C | 7–0 | 215 |
| 4 star | Freshman | Kevin Thomas | W | 6–7 | 190 |
| Freshman | Alexandros Samodurov | C | 6–11 | 212 | |
| RS freshman | Cade Bennerman — W | C | 7–0 | 205 | |
| Sophomore | Neoklis Avdalas — X | G | 6–9 | 215 | |
| Sophomore | Isaiah Denis | G | 6–4 | 180 | |
| Sophomore | Matt Able — Y | G | 6–5 | 196 | |
| 1 | Senior | Terrence Brown — Z | G | 6–3 | 174 |
| 4 | Senior | Jaydon Young | G | 6–4 | 200 |
| 15 | Senior | Jarin Stevenson | 4 | 6–10 | 215 |
| Graduate | Angelo Brizzi — ZZ | 2 | 6–3 | 193 | |
| Walk-ons | |||||
| 25 | Junior | John Holbrook | 4 | 6–8 | 230 |
| 32 | Senior | Evan Smith | 2 | 6–1 | 195 |
W — Northwestern transfer. X — Virginia Tech transfer; Y — N.C. State transfer; Z — Utah transfer; ZZ — Buffalo transfer
Michael Malone’s coaching staff: Chuck Martin, Bryan Tibaldi, Sean May and Pat Sullivan; Deon Thompson will be a graduate assistant, and Brandon Robinson will reportedly have a support staff position.
Players who left for the transfer portal
| Player | Class next season | Pos. | Hgt | Wgt | Next school |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luka Bogavac | Senior | W | 6–6 | 215 | Oklahoma State |
| James Brown | Senior | C | 6–10 | 240 | Howard |
| Derek Dixon | Sophomore | G | 6–5 | 200 | Arizona |
| Kyan Evans | Senior | G | 6–2 | 175 | Minnesota |
| Zayden High | Junior | C | 6–10 | 230 | South Florida |
| Jonathan Powell | Junior | G | 6–6 | 190 | Pittsburgh |
| Ivan Matlekovic | Junior | C | 7–0 | 255 |
Schedule so far
(Other than the ACC/SEC Challenge, games without links revealed from reporting by Alex Rosinski or Rocco Miller)
(13 of 14 games)
Oct. 18 — exhibition game vs. Indiana at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis
Nov. 2 — vs. Western Carolina
Nov. 6 — vs. Wofford
Nov. 10 — vs. Wyoming
Nov. 13 — vs. Georgia
Nov. 20 — vs. Marshall
Nov. 27 — vs. West Virginia at the Dick Vitale Invitational at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center
Dec. 1 — vs. Arkansas in ACC/SEC Challenge
Dec. 6 — vs. Butler
Dec. 12 — at Georgetown
Dec. 15 (tentative date) — vs. N.C. State in a non-conference game in Greensboro
Dec. 19 — vs. Kentucky in CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden, 2:30 p.m.
Dec. 21 — vs. The Citadel
Jan. 30 — vs. Illinois in Nashville, Tenn.
ACC games
Home and away: Duke, Louisville
Home only: California, Georgia Tech, Miami, N.C. State, SMU, Stanford, Virginia
Away only: Boston College, Florida State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Photo via @UNC_Basketball
