{"id":398649,"date":"2016-11-09T14:07:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T19:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=398649"},"modified":"2026-07-26T14:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T18:19:53","slug":"2016-17-unc-basketball-season-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=398649","title":{"rendered":"2016-17 UNC Basketball Season Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Will the Tar Heels shoot some threes, play some D and will depth be the key?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Last season, the North Carolina Tar Heels went into the basketball season with high expectations, being ranked in the top 3 of most preseason polls. After some unexpected losses, the Heels finally gelled late and lived up to those expectations &#8211; losing to Villanova in the NCAA finals. <\/p>\n<p>The 2016-17 version, without leader Marcus Paige and All-America Brice Johnson, may or may not make it back to the championship game but Carolina has a good chance to finish with a comparable record. <\/p>\n<p>The Heels have six very experienced players although Theo Pinson, a 6-6 junior swingman, has been lost for much, if not all, of the season with a broken foot. Pinson, who led the team in assists per minute last year, is expected to make it back on the floor by late January. <\/p>\n<p>If he returns earlier, he could be an impact player as Coach Roy Williams had planned to start him at the off-guard position. If he&#8217;s not ready until late January, the Heels might think about getting a medical redshirt for him. <\/p>\n<p>By then a crop of new talent will be enmeshed with returning starters Justin Jackson, Kennedy Meeks and Joel Berry, and experienced players off the bench in Nate Britt and Isaiah Hicks. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cb3media.com\/heelprints\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Please click here to continue reading the preview ahead of Friday&#8217;s opener.<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?attachment_id=398650\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-398650\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/uncbasketballjackson2016.jpg\" alt=\"uncbasketballjackson2016\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-398650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/uncbasketballjackson2016.jpg 640w, https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/uncbasketballjackson2016-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/uncbasketballjackson2016-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/uncbasketballjackson2016-230x130.jpg 230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Will the Tar Heels shoot some threes, play some D and will depth be the key? Last season, the North Carolina Tar Heels went into the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-398649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398649","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=398649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398651,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398649\/revisions\/398651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/398650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=398649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=398649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=398649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}