Carolina Piling Up Bigs; What's Next for Tar Heels?

It certainly has been an impressive recruiting week for North Carolina coach Roy Williams. So what's next?

Williams on Friday landed 6-9 twins David and Travis Wear, 190-pound juniors at Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei. Rivals.com has Travis ranked No. 19 and David ranked No. 20 in the Class of 2009.

Two days earlier, the Tar Heels received a commitment from 6-10 John Henson of Round Rock, Texas, another top-ranked junior.

Williams now has commitments from the three juniors and from 6-3 sophomore Kendall Marshall of Arlington (Va.) Bishop O'Connell.

Williams is involved with two talented New Jersey junior guards in St. Patrick's Dexter Strickland and St. Anthony's Dominic Cheek, as well as Leslie McDonald, a 6-4 shooting guard out of Memphis. Cheek's St. Anthony team is No. 1 in the ZAGSBLOG New Jersey Top 10 and No. 2 in the National Prep Poll, while Strickland's Celtics are No. 3 in ZAGSBLOG and No. 5 in the national poll.

Williams last month visited Strickland during a practice at St. Patrick, and the 6-3 guard plans on visiting the school again soon with his father.

"I feel real good about the school," Strickland told ZAGSBLOG last month. "I like the campus, the players, their history and everything. It's a good fit for me. I'm not going to make a commitment yet. I'll probably wait until the middle of my season.

"North Carolina is looking real good for me."

As for the 6-5 Cheek, he recently told ZAGSBLOG he's in no rush and has a lot of suitors, including North Carolina, Villanova, Wake Forest, Pitt, Texas, Florida, Marquette, Seton Hall and Rutgers.

"I'm still open right now. There's no leader or anything," Cheek said.

Early speculation had Cheek leaning toward North Carolina, and recent reports have mentioned his affinity for Villanova.

Cheek did say he had attended "most" of Villanova's home games this season, but "not every one." He had hoped to see the North Carolina-Rutgers game at the RAC Dec. 16, but was busy playing with his high school team at the Tip-Off Classic at Seton Hall.

He said he plans to wait until next fall to take his five official visits.

"I want to try to take all my official visits," he said.

Stay tuned for more on Strickland and Cheek in the next week or so. We hope to catch up with Dexter at the Nike Super Six Jan. 13 at Madison Square Garden.

(photos courtesy Carolina Blue, Herald News, Rivals)

Cheek did say he had attended "most" of Villanova's home games this season, but "not every one." He had hoped to see the North Carolina-Rutgers game at the RAC Dec. 16, but was busy playing with his high school team at the Tip-Off Classic at Seton Hall.

He said he plans to wait until next fall to take his five official visits.

"I want to try to take all my official visits," he said.

Stay tuned for more on Strickland and Cheek in the next week or so. We hope to catch up with Dexter at the Nike Super Six Jan. 13 at Madison Square Garden.

(photos courtesy Carolina Blue, Herald News, Rivals)

Comments

[Dre]

With Henson, Zeller, and the Wear twins, they're loading up on thin, relatively athletic forwards with above-average range, but none of them are exactly intimidating defensively.

[4Corners]

UNC has also signed Ed Davis, who is a defensive force inside. And although Henson is something of a project, he does shape up to be a shotblocker defensively.

Defense can be taught.

Height, not so much.

[Dre]

Tell that to Neil Fingleton.

Defense can be taught, but toughness is more of an internal mechanism. Hansbrough has it. The Wears, Henson, and Zeller have yet to exhibit it.

For the record, Ed Davis is far from a "defensive force." For the record, the Tanzanian "scholar" Hasheem Thabeet is a legitimate defensive force.

Ed Davis has been the beneficiary of graduating in a very weak senior class.

[4Corners]

lol at the Fingleton comment. I don't think he's exactly a Roy Williams type of big man.

Still bitter that Davis chose UNC over UConn huh?

Not sure why you're trying to tie toughness to defensive prowess. One isn't a necessary compliment of the other. Some of the best defenders are long, lean kids with great reach and lateral quickness. Davis and Zeller, and new recruit John Henson, certainly aren't lacking in the "length" department.

Did you think Brandon Wright was "tough"? By any definition, he wasn't, but he was an incredible shot blocker. Davis, Henson and Zeller posess similar physical attributes to be forces in the paint defensively.

Ans as tough as Hansbrough is, defense isn't his forte.

Davis had 13 blocks last night against 5 star recruit Deshawn Painter. He's also an aggressive rebounder. He's averaging 13.5 rebounds and 7.5 blocks per game. Not sure what else you're expecting out of a developing high school player.

[Dre]

1)I could care less if Calhoun or UCon wins another game.
2)Deshawn Painter is an excellent athlete for his size, but he's not exactly offensively skilled. In addition, he's struggled in high school play this season against quality competition.