Marcus Paige: Injured, but Not the Heels Chances

Marcus Paige has thrown the first wrench into the North Carolina Tar Heels’ plans to make a championship run this season. The senior point guard has fractured his non-shooting hand. The injury is expected to take him out of the first three to four weeks of the season according to an announcement from the school itself.

So the Heels enter the season without their point guard and generally believed best player. For a roster as deep and experienced as the Heels are, they should be able to adjust in the short term. After all, Joel Berry and Nate Britt are there as backups to that position. Both have some minutes logged in at that spot.

The injury might also give the Tar Heels an opportunity to work without Paige in case the senior should get hurt again. The last Tar Heels team primed for a title run was the 2012 squad. Their run was derailed by an injury to Kendall Marshall in the middle of the tournament. The Heels have to be a more complete team that does not rely too heavily on any one player.

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The early nature of the injury is also partially mitigated by the lack of important games in the early season schedule. These are not ACC games that Paige is missing, and the biggest matchup he could potentially miss would be a showdown with Maryland in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in early December. Depending on his recovery, he might even be back for that one.

The key for the Tar Heels is to get through the conference season largely unscratched with injuries. Health means so much more in March than it does in November. Therefore they could afford to drop a game in this early going and still be a menace in the NCAA Tournament. The 2005 team lost their season opener to Santa Clara without Raymond Felton, but ultimately came out fine.