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Carolina has gotten longer with a shorter bench and saved some money.
Finally, Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels have caught a break in recruiting and paying players for next season. In the past, they have spent a lot of money to sign and retain players and didn’t like all the results.
Davis has finally come off his stance that size under the basket was not as important as “will and want to” in getting the ball off the glass, signing three new big men to restore their traditional inside dominance.
Like during the Roy Williams era, UNC led the ACC in every rebounding category in 2023-24 behind Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram as the Heels won the regular-season championship and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. This past season, they were in the middle of the ACC in team rebounding stats and did not have a player in the top 15.
Looking ahead, senior Ven-Allen Lubin, a smallish 6-foot-8, will be joined by 6-9 freshman Caleb Wilson and a pair of transfers, 6-11 Jarin Stevenson from Alabama and 7-foot Henri Veesaar from Arizona. Plus, 6-10 sophomore James Brown could earn some minutes off the bench.
Whatever Davis and Jim Tanner have agreed to pay their big guys, there could be some money left in the basketball recruiting budget from not having to keep paying departees R.J. Davis, Elliot Cadeau, Jalen Washington, Jae’Lyn Withers, Cade Tyson and Ty Claude last season.
Coming off his ACC Player of the Year and first-team All-American status, R.J. commanded somewhere north of a million dollars that was similar to what football paid Drake Maye in appreciation of their not entering the transfer portal despite big offers from other schools.
Seth Trimble will surely earn more money as the senior leader and backbone of the team, which at this point has 11 scholarship players. Hubert and Tanner are still scouring the portal to guard against sophomore Drake Powell turning pro as a late first-round projection. If so, 6-6 West Virginia transfer Jonathan Powell is available at small forward.
Carolina is also bigger on the perimeter besides Trimble with freshmen newcomers 6-5 Isaiah Denis and 6-3 Derek Dixon (both 4-star recruits) and 6-2 Colorado State transfer Kyan Evans. All are bigger than the Cadeau-Davis combination that struggled on both ends against taller foes.
At this point, a likely backcourt rotation could be Evans as point guard and good outside shooter plus Swiss Army Knife Trimble at any of the three positions with Denis and Dixon providing depth off the bench.
They all have to prove they can play and play together, and the coaching staff will use summer practice to determine the strengths and weaknesses of various combinations. Last season, Lubin did not emerge as a scoring power in the paint until midway through the schedule.
Hubert may be a cockeyed optimist sometimes, but he now has more reason to be so.
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Featured image via Alabama Athletics
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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