Well we made it somehow. Despite the rona, we will have Carolina basketball starting tomorrow night in the Smith Center. The Smith Center will look and feel a lot different but Carolina basketball is finally back and I think we are all ready to put last season's last place finish in the ACC in the rearview mirror. It will start with the College of Charleston who finished in fourth in the CAA last year and went 17-13 overall. They have lost 4 starters from last year's squad and will be lead by senior guard, Brevin Galloway. He lead CofC in 3 pointers last year. Charleston likes to play slow and Carolina played at one of the slowest paces it has ever played in the Roy Williams era last year. Look for the Tar Heels to push the ball. Look for the ball to go down low early and often. CofC has just one player that stands above 6'9". All of our bigs are listed as 6'10" or above. We should abuse Charleston on the glass and in the post. Look for us to dominate the boards and have plenty of second chance opportunities. I imagine Brooks and Bacot will start down low but look for Sharpe and Kessler to get plenty of playing time as well especially if the game gets out of hand. I can see Roy trying out a bunch of combinations down low. Caleb Love and RJ Davis would be my guess to start in the back court. They should be a fun duo to watch and I expect them to push the ball. Both guys are fast and physical players and if they can apply ball pressure on defense then that could lead to a lot of run outs. Leaky Black is my guess to start at the 3 spot. He is long and athletic. In my opinion it is his spot to lose especially with a lot of talented freshmen on the bench. Seeing how Puff Johnson and Kerwin Walton are mixed in should be interesting. Look for some set plays to be called for both players so they can get some open looks. We need some shooters and whoever establishes themselves will get more playing time in that regard. Charleston is going to try to slow the pace down, so how Love handles that will be an early sign on how he is adapting to Roy's system, seeing if he knows when to push the ball and when to run a set.
Realistically we should run away with this and be able to use at least the final 10-15 minutes to experiment with line ups, defenses, etc. Charleston hasn't gone down quietly in the past though as the last meeting was a single digit affair. They are a pesky team for us like Wofford and Davidson, so let's hope we don't have a repeat of our recent luck with Wofford. I am excited to see how this team plays together and as always question Roy's lack of calling timeouts. Welcome to the 2020 basketball season ya'll!
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