North Carolina Tar Heels: Kennedy Meeks Returns
North Carolina Tar Heels basketball future got a lift with the return of a big man for his senior season.
One of the North Carolina Tar Heels’ experiments with the NBA Draft is over pretty soon after it had begun. Kennedy Meeks announced yesterday that he would returning to the school for his senior season. This leaves only Justin Jackson still involved with the draft process.
Meeks’ decision was not much of a surprise. The junior forward had battled injuries last season and not had the breakout year that some were hoping for. Meeks must have known this too since he did not hire an agent to preserve his eligibility.
Still his small time in the NBA Draft pool opens some questions. What information did he get access to? How much information was it? I ask these questions because whatever it told him was enough for him to pull out quickly. At this point, workouts haven’t really started.
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This leaves Jackson in the exploration process. Unlike Meeks, Jackson was invited to the NBA Combine and so he will probably stay in the process until then. Unless he turns heads there, Jackson should ultimately return to campus as well.
The returning Tar Heel team should have a big chunk of its Final Four roster and some freshmen to play with. Meeks will now officially be a part of that with Jackson hopefully returning a little later.
One of the big questions will be how to replace the leadership of Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson. They were two pieces in the equation for Tar Heel success last season. Both are trying to make their mark in the pros next year. Johnson is listed as a mid to late first rounder in most mock drafts while Paige is missing even from the second round.
My guess is that the teams that pass on Paige will eventually regret it. He has too much game not to get a shot somewhere. I just hope that shot is on this side of the Atlantic.