What We Learned at Late Night in HD

Photo: UNC Basketball

College Basketball season is officially back as the North Carolina Tar Heels kicked off the season with Late Night N HD. Head coach Hubert Davis will begin his first season as head coach November 9th. Here are some things you can expect from the Heels this season.

Floor Spacing:

The floor spacing for UNC the past several years has been hard to watch and the offense suffered because of it. Since 2018-2019 season UNC has had a hard time getting anything going offensively. Lack of 3-point shooting and multiple bigs in the paint made it hard to find any lanes to drive the basketball. That will change this season, as UNC mainly ran their offense with four players around the perimeter – with one big or all five players outside the paint. Transfer Brady Manek showed his ability to stretch the floor, which will be a great asset to this group. The other transfers, Justin McCoy and Dawson Garcia also showed they could play on the perimeter with the ability to shoot threes and drive to the basket. UNC will still push the pace on the break, but their half-court offense will look different this season. The spacing has improved, but the ball movement will be different. You can tell it’s something that has been emphasized this off season. UNC’s passing looked crisp and will make them harder to guard.

Armando Bacot:

With more space to operate Armando Bacot should be able to be a dominant presence in the paint, but it’s the new addition to his game that will intrigue fans the most. During the Blue and White scrimmage Armando showed that he has been working on his outside shot, knocking down a three and shooting it with confidence. Coach Davis has had Armando make 1000 threes a week in the offseason and if he can space the floor, it will create even more room for guards like Caleb Love and RJ Davis

Sophomore Guards:

Caleb Love and RJ Davis looked good yesterday. Love looked like he was more confident in his shooting, knocking down several threes in transition during the scrimmage. We know that Caleb can drive the ball to the basket, but if his three-point shooting improves watch out. RJ Davis’ shot looked really good during the scrimmage and the three-point contest. The backcourt will be improved this season with Love and Davis showing improvement. Kerwin Walton lit it up during the three-point contest, but showed what he could do when teams try to run him off the three-point line. Walton thew down a few dunks and showed a better ability to put the ball on the floor to counter teams running him off the line.

Late Night N HD was a success for Hubert Davis as he was able to land a commit from 2023 5-star guard Simeon Wilcher