North Carolina Tar Heels: The Meaning of Maui
The North Carolina Tar Heels will be playing in the Maui Invitational as part of their basketball non-conference schedule.
2016-7 marks the thirteenth season of Coach Roy Williams as head of the North Carolina Tar Heels. It has been a period of some success with two more national championship banners added to the Smith Center. It has also been a period of trial as past mistakes have overshadowed the recent teams.
It would not be much of a leap to say that the Heels were one player away from the national title if that player had been Brandon Ingram, who was scared off by the controversy and went to Duke. As a result the 2015-6 team was denied their version of Marvin Williams and lost the title game to Villanova.
The 2016-7 team still has much of the nucleus of last year’s team with it, though they will miss Brice Johnson and Marcus Paige. With an infusion of some freshmen, the team could be right back in the consideration for potential title teams. Joel Berry and Justin Jackson will have to take a step up as will the post combination of Isaiah Hicks and Kennedy Meeks. There will also be the question of where Paige’s shooting now comes from.
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There is one person who thinks the Heels have a chance. That is Coach Williams because this year the team is slated to go to the Maui Invitational. The early season tournament has a little prestige attached to it and the possibility of playing some heavy weights, but it has also been a great indicator of the future in the Roy Williams era.
The 2005 title team started their campaign on the road against Santa Clara. They famously lost that game, but the whole reason they were in California was to jump over to Hawaii. They recovered from that loss by winning the Maui Invitational. Then they ended up winning the national championship months later.
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The 2009 title team also went to Maui. They emerged victorious. Their road to the Final Four and victory also followed though there were some injuries on the way. The idea then is that a Maui victory sets up a Tar Heel team well for the future.
The 2005 and 2009 teams had small senior classes supported by big junior classes. The 2016-7 Heels have seniors Hicks, Meeks, and Nate Britt with juniors Berry, Jackson, and Theo Pinson in big roles. Both teams got big play from freshmen, Marvin Williams in 2005, Ed Davis in 2009, and that will be the big difference. The other teams had more proven talent had this stage, while the 2017 may well need big impact from freshmen.
This is why Maui becomes important. An early test will tell us exactly where the freshmen are starting from and how good the nucleus can be by itself. If this team takes Maui then that should be a warning shot to the ACC that the window did not close with Paige and Johnson.