Through three games this season, it is clear that North Carolina has one of, if not the best backcourt in the country. Fifth-year senior and reigning ACC Player of the Year, RJ Davis, and the improved sophomore Elliot Cadeau are making waves in college basketball.
However, this year has proven severely different than last season. Rob Harrington of Inside Carolina finds the same intriguing theme as I do … can Cadeau and Davis perfect the dynamics and role shifts this season from last.
We talk about [role assimilation] every season. Last year, we didn’t have to spend a lot of time on it because the roles filled in so immediately. Number one, it’s Elliot Cadeau’s team. Now, I was a resistor after the preseason. We talked a little bit about it in the preseason roundtable, but it would take a lot to knock me off that line at this point. And it’s not about how RJ Davis isn’t shooting well, it’s about the fact that the entire team seems to respond to Cadeau.
None of that was a knock on RJ Davis, Harrington has very positive thoughts on the star-shooting guard as well.
He’s a scorer, and last year they did tons and tons of stuff for him, high screen after high screen. He does one, he does another one, and he starts looking for a shot. And this year it doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to play that way. I don’t think it’s a matter of being selfish or unwilling to do it, but it’s going to be a big adjustment for an All-American player to now have to be 1B, maybe even number two, and I think that’s going to take some time. I don’t think I see him getting frustrated. I don’t think he’s going to have a bad year because he has too much heart for that.
It will undoubtedly take time for Davis and Cadeau to perfect this new pairing. However, by mid-season we could see as good of a backcourt as UNC basketball has ever seen.
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