Posts Tagged “Deon Thompson”

Jun 29 2009

2009 North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball Projected Starting Lineup

Posted by admin in ncaa basketball, north carolina tar heels, tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

North Carolina Tar Heel Coach, Roy Williams, followed up his 2009 NCAA Men’s basketball championship with a top 5 2009 NCAA recruiting class. Although North Carolina will miss Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, and senior Tyler Hansbrough who will all be playing professionally next season, Coach Williams returns a talented crop of players from last season to go with John Henson, Travis and David Wear, Leslie McDonald, and Dexter Strickland who comprise the 2009 recruiting class.

 

Many pre-season rankings hold the Tar Heels a bit lower than their usual pre-season nr 1-3, however, most agree that Coach Williams has more than enough talent returning next year to achieve 30 wins, compete for the ACC title, and just maybe make a deep run in the 2010 NCAA tournament.

 

Projected 2009-10 Starting Lineup for the North Carolina Tar Heels

2009 North Carolina Tar Heels Projected Starter – Point Guard – Larry Drew II

Larry Drew averaged just under 10 minutes a game last season with his most minutes coming with star point guard, Ty Lawson, was out with a toe injury. Drew played in all of North Carolina’s games last season. Drew didn’t really get enough FT and 3PT attempts for fans to see what he is capable of, so you shouldn’t really look hard at the 41% free throw or 35% field goal clips he achieved over the course of the season. Dexter Strickland also looks to see some minutes behind Larry Drew as he picks up the offense and adjusts to the college game. Look for Drew’s playing time to increase as the season progresses.

2009 North Carolina Tar Heels Projected Starter – Power Forward –Deon Thompson

Deon Thompson comes off a season where he averaged 10.6 points a game to go with 5.7 rpg. He’ll be expected to up his production a bit with the loss of Hansbrough for his senior year and gives the Tar Heels an experienced front court presence heading into the 2009-10 season. Star recruit, David Wear will compete for playing time with Thompson and will likely see increased minutes as the season proceeds and the Tar Heels get deeper into ACC play when Coach Williams will need added depth in the front court.

2009 North Carolina Tar Heels Projected Starter – Center – Ed Davis

A huge win for Tar Heels fans was Ed Davis choosing to return for the 2009-10 NCAA season vice declaring for the NBA. He finished the second half of the 2008-09 season extremely strong. Davis led the Tar Heels with 65 blocked shots and pulled down 6.6 rebounds per game. Look for Davis to be the defensive lead of the Tar Heels next season with a bit more offensive production than we saw out of him last season. He’s not likely to pull down 20 points a game, but 13-15 a game is not out of the question.

2009 North Carolina Tar Heels Projected Starter – Small Forward – William Graves

William Graves heads into the summer time as the leading candidate for starting at the SF role for Coach Roy Williams next season. Star recruit, John Henson, will be battling for playing time and could see time behind either Graves or Deon Thompson. John Henson looks like he can play naturally in either the 3 or 4 position in Coach Williams’ offense next season, so his minutes may very likely will just depend on how quickly his defensive came gets up to ACC level competition.

 

2009 North Carolina Tar Heels Projected Starter – Shooting Guard – Marcus Ginyard

Marcus Ginyard received a medical redshirt for last season after only playing three games. He’s started 55 times in his career as a Tar Heel and was also voted the team’s top defender his sophomore and junior years. He’ll bring experience to the backcourt which should help North Carolina jell more quickly as a team as the Tar Heels get into the 2009-10 NCAA basketball season. As the season moves along, expect to see recruit Leslie McDonald start to see an increase number of minutes as Coach Williams gets his team ready for another post-season run in 2010.

Projected 2009-10 North Carolina Tar Heels Starting Line-Up:

PG: Larry Drew, II

SG: Marcus Ginyard

SF: William Graves

PF: Deon Thompson

C: Ed Davis



Refs:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/81568, http://www.collegehoopsvideo.com/2009/05/2009/05/top-5-2009-ncaa-basketball-recruiting-classes/, http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/60116, http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=27016, http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/2009/04/did-i-mention-i-really-like-this-ed-davis-kid/, http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/2009/04/john-henson-is-awesome, http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/2009/06/four-heels-get-drafted/, http://www.collegehoopsvideo.com/2009/06/2009-north-carolina-basketball-recruiting-john-henson/,

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Nov 17 2008

North Carolina Thumps Kentucky, 77-58 – Nov 18, 2008

Posted by admin in Uncategorized, tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
North Carolina showed us why they are the favorites to win the 2009 NCAA title tonight, thumping the Kentucky Wildcats 77-58 without Tyler Hansbrough in Chapel Hill. Most thought the game would be a bit closer than it turned out to be before the season started as it pitted the two winningest college basketball programs against each other. Unfortunately for Kentucky fans, UNC improved to 21-10 all-time against the Cats, and with the loss Kentucky fell to 0-2 for the 2008-09 season for the first time since 2001-02.
 
North Carolina Tar Heels Game Highlights
 
Deon Thompson led the way for North Carolina with a career-high 20 points, but North Carolina sufferred a setback with freshman Tyler Zeller suffering a wrist injury in the later portion of the game after getting fould by Kentucky forward, Ramon Harris. North Carolina was able to force Kentucky into 28 turnovers in the game and never trailed the Wildcats after the four minute point of the game. It was debated on whether Coach Roy Williams would play Hansbrough in the game, but he chose not to rush his return since the outcome of the game was never in question. The win was North Carolina’s fifth straight over Kentucky.
 
Kentucky Wildcats Game Highlights
 
Kentucky followed-up their embarassing loss to VMI with a very anemic performance against the Tar Heels. All-SEC center, Patrick Patterson had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, but just didn’t prove to be enough to keep the Cats in contention tonight. The WIldcats got behind 15-2 to start the game, and showed signs of what to expect this season without a true point guard on the roster. Kentucky would get no closer than 11 points during the game, and would be down by as many as 21 at one point of the contest. Guard Jodi Meeks also chipped in for 19 points in the game for coach Billy Gillispie, but Kentucky did not have many other highlights during the game.

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