I know there are different perspectives on how much we should care about players who have left the program, so maybe this article doesn’t interest everybody. Me personally? I think that one of the best ways to fight against college sports feeling so mercenary is to really believe that every stop on someone’s journey is important, and for our purposes here, that means treating even a brief stop in Chapel Hill like it mattered. In the context of a lifetime, even four years isn’t a whole lot, after
all, and yet my four years in Chapel Hill certainly changed my life. I can believe that a year can leave an imprint. And, of course, even players who have left can affect a program down the line — there’s maybe no more prominent example right now than Caleb Love’s influence on Henri Veesaar’s decision to come to UNC.
Anyways. It hasn’t been documented as much as with the football team, because the men’s basketball team is actually good, but UNC men’s basketball turned over nearly an entire roster between last year and this one. A couple of players graduated and one, Drake Powell, is now playing in the NBA. But a whole host of them are still playing college basketball, and as nonconference schedules around the country are coming to a close, I thought it would be as good a time as any to check in on those players and see how their new homes are treating them.
- Elliot Cadeau has started every game for Michigan during an 11-0 start that has the Wolverines as the #2 team in the country. His averages are nearly the same as they were last year: 10.1 points, 5.8 assists, and 3.1 rebounds per game compared to 9.4/6.2/2.9 as a sophomore, but he’s shooting much better from distance (43.5% on about 4 attempts a game), has improved his A:TO ratio from 2:1 to 2.4:1, and has been his team’s hero a few times already, including making several game-winning plays in their overtime win against Wake Forest. Perhaps most stunning is his improvement on defense: He’s brought his Defensive Rating down from 107.9 points/100 possessions to 92.4. That can be a team-dependent stat, but it’s backed up by Evan Miyakawa’s DBPR rating him as one of the 50 most impactful defenders in the country, right in the neighborhood of Henri Veesaar. It appears a fresh start has indeed done him some good, and his ability to elevate his teammates is on full display as the Wolverines are playing some of the best ball in the NCAA.
- Ian Jackson has had an up-and-down start to the season for Rick Pitino and St. John’s, but to be fair, that’s the case for the Red Storm as a team, who are 8-4 after starting the season ranked in the top 10 with championship aspirations. Jackson started the first game but played just 15 minutes even though he went 6/6 from the field — if you’re doing that but not collecting basically any other stats, you’re probably not playing team basketball. He proceeded to come off the bench for their next six games, during which time he was more active on the court but less efficient as a scorer, shooting just 42% from the field and 29% from three-point range. Pitino has put him back in the starting lineup of late and results have been better, as he’s averaging a 12/4/2/1 statline in his last four games as a starter. His stats are basically in line with what he did for UNC last year, but he appears to be slowly becoming a more complete basketball player. Consistency still appears to be an adventure, though — I watched him when St. John’s played Kentucky, and after a stellar first half, he essentially ran cardio while the Wildcats mounted a second-half comeback. Again, though, that’s kind of what happened to his whole team, so maybe that’s not so much on him.
- Cade Tyson is probably the biggest surprise on this list. His year in Chapel Hill made it look like he just wasn’t ready for the jump to power-conference basketball from Belmont — he was physically overwhelmed playing as a small-ball 4, and an outside jumper that was supposed to be his strength looked uncomfortable. At Minnesota now, though, he’s one of the country’s premier bucket-getters, averaging 22.8 points per game on 53/42/82 splits. The Gophers haven’t been very good, but Tyson is absolutely sniping now that he’s playing more on the wing than on the block — and it’s allowed him some space to get to the rim and score at all three levels, too. He’s still not defending very well, but it’s a lot more forgivable when you’re averaging the second-most points per game in the nation.
- Ven-Allen Lubin, playing basically down the street for N.C. State for a coach who talked a big game about how underutilized he was in Chapel Hill, has indeed scaled up his production with more minutes. Shooting the same efficient 69% from the floor that he did last year, he’s averaging a healthy 13.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in about 26 minutes per game. He’s having a good season individually, but with him starting at center, his team has had issues protecting the rim and dealing with size in the frontcourt. Sound familiar?
- Jalen Washington, like Cadeau, is playing for a team that’s currently undefeated: in his case, it’s #11 Vanderbilt. He’s in the rotation at center and giving the Commodores some good minutes, averaging 9.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks in 19 minutes per game. He’s been a more willing shooter, with about a third of his field goal attempts coming from distance, and even though he’s shooting under 30%, just the fact that he’s not being tentative about letting it fly has helped both his team’s spacing and his own ability to work in space and finish around the rim without needing to be overly physical. The big turnaround in his game has been that he’s cut his turnover rate in half, and that’s obviously made him a lot more valuable as an offensive piece.
- Fun fact: he’s now teammates again with Tyler Nickel, who was in his recruiting class at UNC. Nickel is having an absurdly efficient scoring season, averaging 15.3 points per game including a 48% mark from outside the arc. He recently put up 26 points on 12 shots in a win against Wake Forest.
- And finally, on the women’s side, Trayanna Crisp is starting at guard for 12-1 Mississippi State and averaging about 8 points a game on decent efficiency, including a 40% mark from 3-point range after being a 30% shooter her first three years of college. She’s become a better passer as well, and overall looks like much more of a winning player than she did in Chapel Hill.
