Fanhood is sort of the love of watching the sport apart from gaming interests. Duh. I'm a discriminating Cardinal fan. In spite of not particularly being a Pitino lover I acknowledge his great strengths, I'm in this thread in November predicting UofL as the biggest threat to Carolina title but when Cards came out as overall one-seed I hated it as they are AT BEST the third best team and have well-chronicled offensive bugaboos, I'm not one who pulls for one team blindly and hates all others, I love world-class athletes playing within a team concept, when Louisville went out (as I suspected) UNC is my second choice. And I want Heels to pass UK in all-time wins. I mean they've had it long enough and I don't remember seeing many neck-and-neck all-time wins races.

For anyone worrying about Ed Davis going pro:

http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.c...18-1134448.cfm

i wish someone had been around to do the same for marvin williams

See : http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=1966

I mentioned this like a week ago Lurchy.

Marvin Williams and Ed Davis were just in very different financial situations. Ed's father made $14 million playing in the NBA and seems to still be pretty well off. IIRC, Marvin grew up in a single family home with a mom who had to take a ferry to work every morning and had to get up at 5:30am or something insane every day. A lot of stories out at the time made it seem like Marvin would have loved to have stayed in Chapel Hill but that he wanted to take care of his family.

It is really refreshing to hear someone wait to go pro until they're more developed and ready however. I'd love to see that become a trend but obviously with the amount of money involved it's unlikely.

Completely different article IMO.

i know their circumstances are different, i just wish someone had been around to tell him to stay. he could have used another year to get ready for the pros. for someone who isn't an elite talent an extra year can be the difference b/t busting and making it

I don't know if Marvin stock could be any higher though than it was. The team was losing everyone. No one knew how good Tyler was going to be. He would have stayed 2 more years and played at an extremely high level to get back to being a top 3 pick imo. Obviously I wish Marvin would have stayed but it would have helped UNC and not really helped him that much other than maybe gaining confidence. He has gotten a lot of chances to play in Atlanta for the most part.

Personally I thought Brendan should have stayed but he has ended up on the wrong team. His stats are quite good per minute, but he never gets any minutes. He's someone we could have definitely used last year, and I believe his progression would have been much stronger at UNC than it's been hardly playing in the pros. His free throw shooting still sucks and he still needs to gain some weight; I think if Nellie leaves or he gets on another team he could really blossom.

i'm not talking about his stock, i'm talking about how prepared he was for the nba

Marvin has progressed more slowly than most picks that high, but at 22 years old I think he's finally starting to progress, and has progressed well the last 2 years. Your right he probally could have stayed and have been more prepared for the NBA, but I don't think the gap would have been that different between a 22 year old player with 4 years in the NBA and let's say he stayed 2 or 3 seasons at UNC with 2 or 1 season of NBA experience....maybe I'm wrong. He worked on his 3 point game this off-season and went from a 25% shooter to a 36%. He still has a ways to go to be justified at his pick but I think he's on his way to being a solid player. Obviously he's no CP3 or Deron Williams......but he's still a pretty good player at 22.

it's not like he has busted in the nba, but he's really just been meh overall to date. shown some flashes here and there, but the same can be said for most players drafted that high.

he's only 22 and he has gotten better, but in terms of reaching his potential the weaknesses in his game are the same ones people talked about 4 years ago. it's extremely difficult to improve as you go in the nba.


edit: for the elite talents an extra year in college isn't going to do much, but most nba caliber players aren't dominant enough in college that they have nothing to gain by staying (in terms of expanding their games)

I don't think it's that difficult to improve in the NBA. What do you mean? His handle and shot and D? You can improve certain things easier than others, but I don't think it's that difficult. Most players don't come into the NBA as a finished product, most get better, some get significantly better.

he has refined his skills that were the best in college, but he has not made significant strides in what were considered to be his weaknesses (with the exception of his jump shot). he still can't really create his own shot, he doesn't rebound well at all, defensive issues, lack of a post game. no one comes into the league as a finished product but there were huge holes in his game.


edit: his stock was so high that unc was so stacked that year that a lot of scouts believed he hadn't demonstrated many other skills due to playing within the system


players obviously improve if they continue to play, but it's rarely at the things that they aren't good at b/c that's not why they are on the court. that's how people become role players. the people who are able to address their weaknesses round out their games and become stars, which is obviously not the norm

Congrats to Ty Lawson. Playing just like Raymond Felton in 05 if not better. Didn't think I'd be able to say that again so soon

http://northcarolina.scout.com/2/852974.html

and he gamboolsss.

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow...-at-final-four

Awesome article about how Lawson and Dante Cunningham were teammates when they were 7 years old.

http://www.fannation.com/si_blogs/to...the-final-four

Wow, Tywon looks like a lil TROUBLEMAKER....you know the kind of kid whos the class clown but has a heart of gold

Dante looks straight up prep

Yeah saw that article earlier in the day. Love to Tywon smile. And what's up with Dante's raised brows. Ty + Ellington know a bunch of the Nova guys. Ty was best friends (still?) with Durant due to them both being at Oak Hill together.

From IC:

The rumor is that Wall wasn't very impressed by Durham and that he gave the UNC staff a call to try to make one last pitch for them to recruit him...

I'd be interesting. I don't care where he goes just as long as it isn't Duke. I'd prefer not to UK either. He's a 1 year ringer. Obviously has a ton of talent and our team would be lucky to get him. But it'd just be a rental for the year. Supposedly Roy was turned off by him during the recruiting process due to him showboating and making LDII look bad. Is he worth a chance? Maybe. But I would prefer the program avoid kids like him. I don't think he's even qualified for school yet due to his test scores. I don't want to seem like the holier than thou crowd since we have had Brendan Wright, Marvin in the doors--and we have recruited Henson who might be gone after a year, but Wall has other baggage.

I believe he wants to stay close to home which would kinda void out UK, NCSU has nothing to offer and I guess from this he doesn't like Duke. We could definitely use a PG next year, I don't know how good LDII and/or combination of Strickland will be.........who knows.

Whatever, I think our attention should be on UNC this weekend. Please run better in the FF. Stop losing the opening round games. 18th trip, 17 before this year and only 4 titles. Let's get this thing done. Let's cut down the 1 net that really matters.

The deal with Wall is incredibly interesting so I just have to rant about it a little more.

I've long said that while he's tremendously talented, I' not sure that he'd be worth it due to his considerable baggage. With that said, the spin coming out of the Duke camp was that his grades were quite good at Word of God and that his attitude had improved significantly. Now, of course that could be spin since Duke was recruiting him or he could have attempted to improve his attitude.

If the main guy I trust on IC is to be believed, we may be making a serious play for Wall.

Sorry for the slight off topicness but let us gogogogogo tomorrow. I feel really good about our chances this weekend.

[ ] will ever understand this threads hate for ld2


also lol @ anyone who thinks that marvin would have improved more had he stayed in college. his stock was as high as it probably would ever be and he doesnt come from a rich family or anything. why the **** would he stay?

There isn't hate for LDII. I'm just unsure of how good he can or will be. I guess we've been spoiled with Shammond, Ed Cota, Felton, and now Lawson. From what little he's played he seems a step below them, but with that being said they were all ridiculously good.

Wall is pretty much seen a top 5 pick in the draft after next. I haven't seen him, but that's what I've read he is that good. It would definitely help Duke if they got him seeing that they have had PG issues for a long time and might bring them back to beating us--but only for 1 year. But I don't think there is any question between LDII and Wall who the better player is that's all I'm saying. Can LDII be on the level of the other 4, maybe. But we all know how good Wall is. Obviously LDII will probally be here for 3 more years, and he could be the starter the next 3 as well.

shocker

His stock being high has nothing to do with the fact that his overall game would have improved had he had more time in the Carolina system. I think that is pretty obvious.

Should he have gone so his Mom could stop getting on the ferry at 5:30am every morning? Of course.