Roy Williams Finally Admitted UNC Can't Play His Traditional Style If They Want To Win
After Zion perhaps the second most talked about freshman is a guy who plays for his rival and couldn’t seem to get on the court. Nassir Little entered UNC as a top-10 recruit and a top-5 NBA Draft prospect. However, for the majority of the season he was stuck behind Cam Johnson and Luke Maye in the 3/4 spots. He was inconsistent on the court simply because he wasn’t playing as many minutes as he probably should have.
That’s because Roy Williams thought his traditional style of playing a true big at the 5 and Maye at the 4 would be best. UNC though has struggled recently. It got its ass kicked by Louisville. It trailed essentially the whole game against Kentucky. It gave up 92 points to Texas. Really if it wasn’t for the win against Gonzaga in Chapel Hill the nonconference would have been a little bit of a mess with no quality wins.
That started to change last night. Simply because Roy Williams stopped being stubborn.
He played Nassir Little with Cam Johnson and Luke Maye during the second half of a close game against Notre Dame. Little looked the part of that top-10 guy. He finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds. He was aggressive on the offensive side. He caught the ball on the wing and made a move immediately instead of waiting to attack.
It has to be this way going forward. That’s not to say that Roy shouldn’t play Manley (when healthy)/Brooks/Huffman at the 5. But, he needs to utilize this 5-out offense more. Sure, it’s not the best defensively, but UNC hasn’t been good defensively with the traditional look. Might as well go with the best offensive lineup. The addition of Little living up to the hype completely changes how UNC’s outlook should be.