Comments on: A Trip to the Vault: North Carolina and Michigan State Face Off in the 2005 Final Four

By: mpatton

mpatton — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:07:23 +0000

In reply to JG UNC.

Harrison Barnes was great (for the second half of last season)…he might even turn out to be the best player I listed. His offensive rating trend is definitely trending upwards, which bodes well for his having a first team All American season. I definitely think my argument for him was the weakest. But to say he was like Michael Jordan is totally overlooking the first half of his season. The amazing thing about Jordan is he always hit shots, in the first minute and in the last minute. Barnes was fairly inconsistent. As I said before though, I expect him to improve tremendously.
Rashad McCants was a monster in college. He’s definitely forgotten about for three reasons: (1) he was sort of a jerk; (2) he never quite made it at the NBA level (for the record, I can’t explain this other than his attitude never quite fit with not being the first scoring option); and (3) he never came across as the leader (see number 1).
May was not “just big”. He had the softest hands I have seen in the last ten years. Seriously, you could toss it down to those mitts from anywhere. He averaged 20 points a game (and double figure rebounding) during the tournament. That’s a lot better than Zeller’s tournament performance. A whole lot. I’d take May in a heartbeat over Zeller. Henson certainly has the advantage over him on the defensive end, but he adds nothing offensively outside of alley-hoops and put backs. You have to respect a guy that can execute in the halfcourt set on his own (McCants and Felton were also excellent in this aspect).
As for Marshall and Felton, I’m extremely worried about the way Duke shut Marshall down by closing off his passing lanes and forcing him to be more of a scorer (not even factoring the minor liability he is on defense against quicker guards). Yes, he’ll throw more beautiful cross-court bounce passes than Felton ever did, but Felton was the more complete player.

By: JG UNC

JG UNC — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:25:00 +0000

Yea I agree… Uhh, are you insane? Harrison Barnes will be the and is the best player out of all the players listed on this whole page! He was better as a freshman than Jawad was his whole career at UNC. Last time I checked Jawad didn’t win 6-10 games by himself with one key shot late in the game to either close the game or give the Heels the lead in which they went on to win… Harrison did! Rashad is the only one who had the stats Harrison did as a freshman, but didn’t single handedly win 6-10 games. It’s one thing to put up gawdy numbers, but another to be a Michael Jordan, who made all the shots when it mattered most. Rashad made tons of shots, but I don’t remember him making anything as clutch as the shots Harrison has made in his FRESHMAN season! May was just big! Come on now, he had no hook shot, no face up jumper, he just beasted guys, which is great, but it’s not skill, which is why he has done nothing in the pros, doesn’t have the skill. Tyler AND John have a better skill set, run the floor better, have better finesse moves, better defense… Kendall Marshall is a WAY better passer than Ray, but Raymond is def a better scorer, I’d still take Kendall, because Ray had ball handling issues his first 2 years, and wasn’t NEAR the complete player Kendall is as a rising sophomore, nor the leader Kendall is. I LOVED that 04-05 team, I love ALL the championship teams, haha, and this 11-12 team has not won anything yet, BUT, this team will produce more pros who will have better pro careers than the 04-05 team. Raymond and Marvin are the ONLY ones doing anything worth a damn in the pros now… I GUARANTEE you that Harrison, Henson, McAdoo, Marshall, and Hairston will all have really good to great pro careers. End of story. All this team has to do is go bring home that title!! GO HEELS

By: Bneal219

Bneal219 — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:54:00 +0000

You have two future top 10 picks in the 2012 NBA draft if they decide to leave in Barnes and McAdoo and another sure fire 2012 1st round pick in John Henson along with the 4th burger boy of the bunch in PJ Hairston who is going to be a great player at UNC and the best outside shooter out of everybody you named on this write up and the edge goes to J.Williams, Marvin, and Noel???? Barnes averaged more points as a Fr than everybody on that list, Henson averaged more rebounds and blocks as a So. that anybody on that list, and don’t even get me started on Mcadoo who has yet to play a minute of college ball but is projected as a top 5 pick in next year’s NBA draft. You sir make absolutely ZERO sense….