Given the nature of the rivalry Duke fans naturally keep an eye on the other end of 15-501, and of course, that’s true for UNC as well.
There was a big development in Chapel Hill Saturday, as center Henri Veesaar decided to remain in the NBA Draft rather than return to Chapel Hill.
Is it a blow? Well, obviously. He was productive in his one year in Chapel Hill. Is it fatal?
First, Veesaar was far more effective when defenses had to contend with Caleb Wilson. If you had to pick one of them to guard, you’d have to be an idiot to take Veesaar over Wilson, and that got Veesaar a lot of opportunities he wouldn’t have after Wilson was injured.
He had his moments, to be sure, but irreplaceable? Probably not.
We’re not sure, but our guess is that Malone is sifting through other European prospects, and there are probably a few big guys who could at least approximate what Veesaar gave the Tar Heels.
However, they might have already solved that problem.
Jarid Stevenson is a useful big man. He filled in fairly well for Wilson when the freshman phenom went down. He’s not a center, but he’s useful.
Neoklis Avdalis, a 6-9 transfer from Virginia Tech, may be a point forward, but he’s going to be a handy player too. He dealt with some injuries last year, and had to adjust to college basketball, coming from Greece, but he has the chance to improve dramatically. And we expect he will.
A 6-9 transfer from FAU, Logue has been derided by some UNC fans online for not being Wilson or, at least, Veesaar.
They should look at what his FAU coach, John Jakus, says about him. Here’s what he told on3.com:
“I’m going to say this not flippantly — Maxim is as physically gifted as almost anybody I’ve been around. Obviously based on my time at Baylor and Gonzaga, I’ve been around some pretty physically gifted guys.
“There’s some language barrier, there’s three injuries this year, there’s some growing pains, but at the tail end, there’s going to come a moment when somebody gets him where he fully knows English, fully has made the adjustment from France to America, and takes off. The year he gets healthy and all those things fall into place is probably going to be a special thing.”
Assuming he stays healthy this year, that’s one thing checked off the list. Hopefully, his English has improved.
The rest is just time. New coach Michael Malone is trying to sell himself as an elite developer of talent. If he can get Logue up to speed, that’s going to be huge for the Tar Heels.
We expect UNC will get at least one or two more big men before all is said and done, and that’ll help, too. And of course, no one says Malone has to do things conventionally. In 1986, Duke didn’t have a big man. That team did okay.
One of our all-time favorite teams in college basketball was the 1988-89 Illinois squad. With 6-4 Kendall Gill, 6-5 Nick Anderson, 6-6 Kenny Battle, 6-6 Stephen Bardo, 6-7 Lowell Hamilton, and 6-8 Marcus Liberty, the Illini were really the first positionless basketball team.
We’ll see what Malone does, but he’s got some good players to work with.
Speaking of keeping up with the neighbors, have you seen this story?
Turns out that behind the scenes, the power structure at UNC had already decided to replace the Dean Dome, and had a well-developed, sophisticated plan to sell the decision to the various factions.