UNC Basketball: Nassir Little hopes to bring new excitement to team

While the North Carolina basketball team hasn’t had success via freshman standouts, Nassir Little hopes to be a spectacular addition to the Tar Heels.

While the National Championship has always been dominated by prestigious schools like the North Carolina basketball team squad, teams with mainly talented freshman players have not had the success that experienced college teams have had.

Two teams that can be looked at as exceptions to the norm are the 2012 Kentucky basketball team and the 2015 Duke basketball team.

Kentucky had talented freshmen like Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague. Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist are still in the NBA having fantastic careers.

Duke had talented freshmen like Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, and Tyus Jones. Both teams were dominant and nothing stood in their way of a National Championship.

This Tar Heels team has talented freshmen coming in this year. One of them is Nassir Little. Little was a McDonald’s All American (he won the MVP award of the game) and ranked the number three player in the nation according to 247 sports.

Head coach Roy Williams says he is one of the best athletes he has ever coached. According to Sporting News he said:

“He plays hard, he goes to get the rebound, he gets better every week,” Williams told SN at ACC Media Day. “I would say probably his best practice that he has had was yesterday, so I like those guys that keep getting better instead of hitting a wall. He is an athlete who can shoot the basketball that instinctively gives it up.”

Williams won a National title in 2017 and with Little for this one season most likely he will look to be one of the most dominant teams in the nation.

In high school, he was in the top ten for both rebounding and points per game. He averaged 21.7 points per game and was good for seventh. He averaged 9.2 rebounds which were good for 10th.

Little was an All-Orange County player and he was All-Orange County Player of the Year during his last season. In that senior season, he was able to lead Orlando Christian Prep to the Florida Class 3A state championship.

Little is a 6’8 physical and explosive force on the court. He uses his imposing length to sky up for high flying jams. He has the ability to step out and shoot the ball too. He will be a mismatch nightmare out there for opposing teams.

With his length and long arms on defense, he will be able to get into the passing lanes which will ignite the fast break on offense.

Getting easy baskets in tough ACC games will be crucial for a North Carolina team that hopes to hoist the National Championship trophy in April.

The Heels have veterans like Cam Johnson, Seventh Woods, Kenny Williams and Luke Maye who will be able to guide the younger players like Little and will be able to help the freshmen get through the grind of the season.

The Tar Heels will once again have some of the best players in the nation and will look to dominate the competition and impose their will. For Nassir Little, he hopes to have a great freshman season by hopefully adding to the already long list of awards and cement his name as one of the top players of the 2019 NBA draft.