North Carolina Tar Heels: The Identity Crisis of 2018
The North Carolina Tar Heels will need to get back to team identity no matter who shows up to play next year.
Three times now, the North Carolina Tar Heels have won the National title under Roy Williams. The next phase of the story is always the roster blows up and out and Coach Williams has to rebuild the team anew from the holdovers and the new waves of freshmen the next season.
The 2005 roster lost ten of its fourteen members. The 2006 team electrified fans with a union of four new freshmen and the emergence of David Noel as a primetime player. That team would ultimately become the 2009 championship team. It exceeded expectations, beat Duke on J.J. Redick’s senior night, and still lost to George Mason without reaching the Sweet Sixteen.
Was there life after beating Illinois? Yes. Does the world end when your returning players are Wes Miller, Reyshawn Terry, Quentin Thomas, and Noel? No. Put them together with good freshman role players and a freshman star. Roll the ball out again.
More from North Carolina Tar Heels
- NC Colleges Provide Coronavirus Results from Athletic Departments
- UNC Football gets Commitment from Top Cornerback
- Four North Carolina players selected in first round of MLB Draft
- UNC Destroyed by Coach Duggs and Tennessee in NCAA Football 14
- UNC Basketball: Former Tar Heel star calls out Roy Williams
The 2009 roster also exfoliated quickly after the title. Three rotation seniors and Mike Copeland graduated with the two juniors going professional. The change was not as drastic as 2005 since starter Deon Thompson was still there. The four new starters came from bench folks and new freshmen. Enter Larry Drew, Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller, and Will Graves. Enter John Henson and Dexter Strickland. Waiting on the bench were the Wear twins, Leslie McDonald, and holdover Marcus Ginyard playing his fifth year.
Unlike the 2006 team, there was no clear model. That team had centered around Hansbrough with plenty of minutes for everyone. The 2010 team was an exploration of parts that never quite got together. As a result the team’s membership did not quite hang around. Davis left after getting injured. Thompson and Ginyard graduated. Graves left. The Wears transferred as did Drew in the end (all to UCLA).
The core that was left was Zeller, Henson, and some pieces. The new identity was ready to be forged though as the next two Tar Heel teams would be based on the Zeller/Henson front line mated to incoming freshmen Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall. They might have won a title if injuries had not hated that team.
So the point is that the next team needs a clear identity. That was where the 2006 team and the 2011 team finally got it right. This is the danger for the next team, the 2018 team.