{"id":303,"date":"2010-10-08T05:58:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T12:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsports.us\/?p=303"},"modified":"2010-10-08T05:58:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T12:58:00","slug":"tar-heels-wont-miss-will-graves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=303","title":{"rendered":"Tar Heels won’t miss Will Graves"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Will Graves is no star. He\u2019s a role player on a good ACC team, the type of player who only becomes a important if the team lacks overall talent. So the fact that he was third on North Carolina in scoring last season, at 9.8 points per game, tells you plenty about the talent level on those Tar Heels.<\/div>\n
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Still, Thursday\u2019s news that Graves was off the Tar Heels for good came as a shock. UNC was 20-17 overall last season and 5-11 in the ACC, and stunning offseason loss of the Wear twins thinned Carolina\u2019s frontcourt. Your first thought is, Wow, who\u2019s left?<\/div>\n
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The Heels lack height and depth. Seven-foot Tyler Zeller, 6-10 John Henson and 6-9 transfer Justin Knox are the only players taller than 6-8.  Zeller and Henson are not physical players at all, and UNC will need Knox and 6-8 freshman Harrison Barnes to provide muscle inside.<\/div>\n
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Graves wasn\u2019t much of a rebounder anyway, preferring to float on the perimeter and look for jumpers. The hunch here is Carolina will close ranks quickly and he won\u2019t be missed. Freshman Reggie Bullock is listed at 6-7 but has guard skills and a complementary game \u2013 he can easily fill minutes on the wing that will open up with Graves gone.<\/div>\n
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Frankly, Barnes and Bullock are capable of pushing Graves off the court, which might have been difficult for Graves to accept in his senior year. As surprising as Thursday\u2019s announcement was, it might be best for a Carolina team that needs new chemistry and commitment as it opens the 2010-11 season. The hunch here is come January, UNC fans won\u2019t be saying, \u201cWe sure miss Will Graves \u2026\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will Graves is no star. He\u2019s a role player on a good ACC team, the type of player who only becomes a important if the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}