Kennedy Meeks Out for Boston College game

Kennedy Meeks will not be suiting up for the North Carolina Tar Heels as they take on Boston College later today in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. Meeks has been suffering from an unknown illness that seems to have carried on for a couple of weeks.

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North Carolina’s conference season has been the tale of two sections. They started off strong, and then they played Notre Dame. Since the Notre Dame game, the Tar Heels have collected seven conference losses. This time period roughly corresponds to the time when Meeks got sick.

Before his illness, Meeks was developing into a real low post threat. He was using his size to get into scoring position and converting from there. He also was a bigger presence on the boards for the Tar Heels.

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During the time of his illness, Meeks has been ineffective for stretches. It has become enough of a problem that Coach Roy Williams has experimented with new lineups. This has meant more time for reserve center Joel James and the use of lineups that pair forwards Brice Johnson and Isaiah Hicks.

While James’ increased minutes are deserved due to hard work, neither of these changes were obvious early in the season when every player in the ten or eleven man rotation had his place in the lineup.

So what has Meeks got? No one seems to know. That includes Coach Williams, who insisted that Meeks had been tested for ‘everything’ and they came up with nothing. Maybe someone needs to fire up the
‘Fantastic Voyage’ machine and go do some real investigating down there.

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North Carolina’s success has not come courtesy of any one player this season. The Tar Heels have had to pull together to win games. They need all their cogs working to achieve that goal, and Meeks is a big cog. While Johnson can provide some down low scoring, he does not present the ‘clear and present danger’ to defenses that Meeks does.

How far the Heels go in Greensboro and beyond will depend on how much they can play fundamentally sound and work together. No big name is coming to their rescue.

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