How probable is it (in your opinion) that Barnes starts playing more zone this season? I think we start seeing more zone because it converts Dex and Jordan into assets on D and facilitates playing Dex, Jordan, Lucas and Shawn more minutes. Barnes is exceptionally able at teaching his kids how to rebound in a zone D so that minimizes one of the biggest problems with playing zone.

I’d like to see the horns switch between man D and a matchup zone D a few times per game because it would cause a bit of confusion for the opponent in knowing how to attack the horns’ D.

Syracuse beat UNC by playing a zone. Barnes might want to play some zone vs UNC.

Guru: Even if one assumes (for the sake of argument) that Shawn and Jordan are similar in ability, there is a perfectly logical explanation for why the small forward job is Jordan’s to lose. Jordan is an elite recruit (IIRC, in the top 10). One of the ways that Barnes is able to lure these elite recruits is that he showcases them. Future possible UT elite recruits see this and commit to UT. If one of Barnes’ elite recruits fails, this will hurt future recruiting so Barnes will do everything he can possibly do to make sure that elite recruits succeed (including Jordan).

Their guard play went from a decided weakness to, at the very least, good, and seems to be evolving into a strength. Drew has been playing well the last few games. I was counting on his being a liability against our pressure. That may no longer be the case. Ginyard’s range has extended, but he’s still not a guy who’s going to take over the game. Neither is Graves. Strickland could be that guy eventually, but I don’t think he will be by Dec. 19. If UNC has a definite weakness, it’s their ball handling. Our pressure defense should be able to force quite a few TOs, but we need to make sure we convert these into easy buckets instead of just re-turning the ball over (I.e. don’t let Damion lead the break). We MUST capitalize on our breakaway opportunities. I could see Jordan’s defense being a huge detriment to our team here because UNC has crafty guys on the perimeter who know how to play together and get easy buckets. He has to stay with his guy off the ball or he’s going to get made a fool of and Barnes is going to pull him.

One way that UNC dominates games that few people know about is their lethal secondary break set. Everybody knows how they love to push the ball (less so this year, but still), but where they really shine is the secondary break. Watch for it the next time you see the Heels play, it’s a thing of beauty. They get the ball up the court and don’t give the defense enough time to get set/find the man they are supposed to be guarding. The PG get the ball to the wing on the break. If this is shut down, UNC goes into secondary break mode. This is an automatic play they run almost automatically every time down the court if they are stopped in a transition-like sequence. The wing guard swings the ball back up to the post, who is at the top of the key (the guy that usually gets the rebound on the other end). The other post is already down low. The post at the top of the key then continues to swing the ball, before receiving a screen. Eventually, Carolina has both big men on the blocks and the near-side big man sets a cross screen for the far side post. The wing enters the ball and the big man usually has time to drop step and score before his man recovers from being picked. Also, because the defender is often late, he is prone to fouling for an “and 1.” They abused MSU with this play, especially with Ed Davis, and it’s also what netted Hansbrough so many of his points over his career.