Without Its Legendary Low-Post Presence, UNC Struggling To Find Winning Formula
By David Glenn
If you’re a long-time North Carolina basketball fan, and you can’t remember the last time the Tar Heels lacked a highly productive post presence, a faulty memory is not the culprit.
There simply is no such UNC team. Not in the last 60-plus years, at least.
The 2024-25 Tar Heels, who have struggled to a 6-5 record so far this season, are led by four guards: fifth-year senior RJ Davis, junior Seth Trimble, sophomore Elliot Cadeau and freshman Ian Jackson.
Davis, a returning All-American, was the 2024 ACC Player of the Year. Trimble is an extraordinary athlete and one of the most improved players in college basketball. Cadeau is one of the most creative passers in the college game. Jackson, a McDonald’s All-American, is among the top freshmen in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season.
The four members of that very talented and productive backcourt quartet are Carolina’s top four scorers this season, all in double-digits. Nobody else on the roster, at any position, is averaging even seven points per game.
Davis, Trimble and Cadeau are starters. Jackson comes off the bench. They rotate among the three perimeter-oriented positions in UNC’s five-man lineups. When they’re at their best, they combine to form one of the best backcourts in America.
While Carolina basketball has had plenty of dynamic backcourts over the years, of course, it’s perhaps even more famous for its seemingly never-ending supply of high-quality post players.
Stretching all the way back to 1961, when UNC hired young assistant Dean Smith to lead the program, the Tar Heels always have had at least one post player — and sometimes several — who offered some combination of high-efficiency, double-digit scoring (see list below) and rebounding on offense, plus high-impact shotblocking and/or rebounding on defense.
For decades, thanks largely to Smith and his big-man-guru assistant coach Bill Guthridge, National Basketball Association coaches and executives praised Chapel Hill as the nation’s #1 producer of professional-caliber big men.
That tried-and-true tradition continued more recently under legendary coach Roy Williams, too, with the likes of center Sean May, forward Marvin Williams, forward Tyler Hansbrough, forward Brandan Wright, center Ed Davis, center Tyler Zeller, forward John Henson, forward Brice Johnson, center Kennedy Meeks, forward Luke Maye and center Armando Bacot, among many others.
UNC basketball vs Alabama, Armando Bacot at the rim. (photo via Todd Melet)
Under fourth-year coach Hubert Davis, the 2024-25 Tar Heels simply don’t have anyone of that sort, and that reality undeniably has complicated their up-and-down season so far.
Through UNC’s first 10 games, the Heels outrebounded their opponents by an average margin of only 39-37, and no player had more than eight blocked shots on the season. (UNC big men such as Henson, Brendan Haywood and Warren Martin recorded more blocked shots in a single game.) While the Heels’ offensive efficiency numbers ranked in the top 20 nationally, their defensive data — while playing with small lineups and no rim-protector — ranked outside the top 40.
Asked about his struggling frontcourt after the Tar Heels’ 94-79 loss to Alabama in Chapel Hill on Dec. 4 dropped the team’s record to 4-4, Davis responded with the shortest answer of his long-delayed (47 minutes after the final buzzer) postgame press conference.
“It’s a work in progress, yes,” Davis said.
Asked a follow-up question about the team’s lackluster post play, Davis clearly didn’t want to point fingers.
“Are you speaking in regards to our big guys?” Davis said. “I’m just looking at the team. I’m not specifically looking at one group or a couple of individuals for us to win games like this, whether it’s Auburn or at Kansas or Michigan State. Like we — us, as a team — we have to play better and consistently better, and not in spurts. And so that’s the thing that I’m looking at and want to improve.”
While it’s admirable that Davis wants to be protective of his players, it’s also obvious that he needs his big guys to play better, collectively and individually.
Jalen Washington, a 6-10, 235-pound junior, has been an effective shooter and a solid rebounder but a poor defender. Jae’Lyn Withers, a 6-9, 220-pound senior, is a tremendous athlete and versatile defender but isn’t a low-post scorer and has frequent mental lapses. Cade Tyson, a 6-7, 200-pound junior, is more of a perimeter-oriented player, as indicated by his stellar 47 percent shooting on threes last season at Belmont. James Brown, a 6-10, 215-pound freshman, isn’t yet ready for high-volume minutes at the college level.
Ven-Allen Lubin, a relatively late transfer portal pickup by the Tar Heels during the offseason, is very generously listed at 6-8 and 230 pounds, but he has tremendous hands, plenty of grit and a nose for the ball in traffic. Now on his third school in three years, Lubin was a part-time starter at Notre Dame as a freshman before averaging 12 points and six rebounds per game as a full-time starter for a 9-23 Vanderbilt team last season.
Immediately after Davis added Lubin to UNC’s starting lineup for the first time, the Tar Heels posted back-to-back wins over Georgia Tech and LaSalle, although everyone realized that there are far more difficult opponents ahead.
As is usually the case, the ACC’s best teams so far this season (Duke, Clemson, Pittsburgh) have had high-quality, productive players both on the perimeter and in the paint. That formula has applied to truly every outstanding UNC team in the modern era, too.
As the Tar Heels try to win in a much different manner this season, don’t question your memory if you can’t remember a comparable Carolina team from the past.
There isn’t one.
UNC’s Double-Digit Scorers
(2000-2025)
2025: G RJ Davis, G Seth Trimble, PG Elliot Cadeau, G Ian Jackson (guards only)
2024: G RJ Davis, C Armando Bacot, F Harrison Ingram, G Cormac Ryan
2023: G Caleb Love, G RJ Davis, C Armando Bacot, F Pete Nance
2022: C Armando Bacot, G Caleb Love, F Brady Manek, G RJ Davis
2021: C Armando Bacot, G Caleb Love, F Garrison Brooks
2020: PG Cole Anthony, F Garrison Brooks, G Brandon Robinson
2019: F Cam Johnson, PG Coby White, F Luke Maye
2018: PG Joel Berry, F Luke Maye, F Cam Johnson, G Kenny Williams, F Theo Pinson
2017: F Justin Jackson, PG Joel Berry, C Kennedy Meeks, F Isaiah Hicks
2016: F Brice Johnson, PG Joel Berry, PG Marcus Paige, F Justin Jackson
2015: PG Marcus Paige, F Brice Johnson, C Kennedy Meeks, F Justin Jackson
2014: PG Marcus Paige, F James Michael McAdoo, G Leslie McDonald, F Brice Johnson
2013: G PJ Hairston, F James Michael McAdoo, G Reggie Bullock
2012: F Harrison Barnes, C Tyler Zeller, F John Henson
2011: C Tyler Zeller, F Harrison Barnes, F John Henson
2010: C Ed Davis, F Deon Thompson
2009: F Tyler Hansbrough, PG Ty Lawson, G Wayne Ellington, G Danny Green, F Deon Thompson
2008: F Tyler Hansbrough, G Wayne Ellington, PG Ty Lawson, G Danny Green
2007: F Tyler Hansbrough, F Brandan Wright, G Wayne Ellington, PG Ty Lawson
2006: F Tyler Hansbrough, F Reyshawn Terry, G David Noel
2005: C Sean May, G Rashad McCants, F Jawad Williams, PG Raymond Felton, F Marvin Williams
2004: G Rashad McCants, C Sean May, F Jawad Williams, PG Raymond Felton
2003: G Rashad McCants, F Jawad Williams, PG Raymond Felton, C Sean May
2002: F Jason Capel, C Kris Lang
2001: G Joseph Forte, C Brendan Haywood, F Jason Capel, C Kris Lang
2000: G Joseph Forte, C Brendan Haywood, F Jason Capel, PG Ed Cota
David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.
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