Lucas Shines in Summer Orientation Game

Lucas: Summer Orientation

June 25, 2024 | Men’s Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas

Tuesday’s camp game was a chance for alumni to renew old bonds, and for the newest Tar Heels to prove they belonged.

By Adam Lucas

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Just look at that photo. Go ahead and scroll back up to take in all the details of the shot above—ace Carolina basketball photographer Maggie Hobson snapped it this afternoon during the scrimmage matching the current team against a group of Tar Heel lettermen. The game isn’t a true pickup session (those take place after hours during camp weeks and at other times throughout the summer) but is the closest semi-public Carolina basketball that takes place in the summer, since it happens in front of the entire camp.

And the picture is absolutely everything you want in your UNC summertime basketball. Point guard Elliot Cadeau, poised to make a very important jump from his freshman to sophomore season, is being defended by Cole Anthony. Zayden High, preparing to have a bigger impact as a sophomore, is being guarded by a beardless and Bird-like Brady Manek. And Jalen Washington, who is about to get all the minutes in the paint he can possibly handle, is trying to post up one of the toughest Carolina competitors of this century, Luke Maye.

Now that is Chapel Hill in the summer. And that was the Smith Center on Tuesday afternoon, as the current team used superior depth to wear down the alums on the way to a 71-66 victory in a game played in a first-team-to-70-wins format.

A Competitive Encounter

This was no light workout. “HD said the current guys are going to be tough to beat,” Danny Green said. “We’ve got to play well.”

The alumni team perhaps had better pure skill…or at least more experienced skill. It included: Green, a three-time NBA world champion. Cole Anthony, a quality NBA guard who scored 16 points in this game. Luke Maye, who annually makes a habit of tormenting younger players in these summer pickup sessions and has done the same this summer. Justin Jackson, who had a team-high 17 points and still has that same smooth shooting stroke. Manek, who missed only one shot on his way to 14 points.

They supplemented that quality quintet with 2017 national champion Kenny Williams, who fired in 13 points, and Paxson Wojcik, who has barely been a member of the “old guys” for a month.

Quality Perimeter Shot-Making

As you’d expect given that lineup, the older team tried to generate a significant amount of offense from beyond the arc–almost two-thirds of their shot attempts were three-pointers. But the current team had both youth and depth on its side. Showing off the quality perimeter shot-making that will likely be the hallmark of the 2024-25 team, the current Tar Heels got double figures from RJ Davis, Ian Jackson and Cadeau.

They also got flashes from virtually everyone who played, including Drake Powell sinking two consecutive three-pointers to turn a three-point deficit into a three-point lead late in the game. Ten different current Tar Heels scored, with a little bit of everything you’d want to see— Jalen Washington hitting the boards, for example, and converting the game-winner near the rim, and Trimble knocking in a corner three-pointer that will be an important part of his offensive game.

Looking Ahead

But this game was largely about the curiosity of getting to see the newcomers in Carolina blue and imagining exactly how they might fit in. Bear in mind it’s also only one light scrimmage; there are equally competitive pickup games each night of camp, plus dozens of much more important practices this fall before we see the Tar Heels in November.

But it was hard not to imagine what could be when, for example, Jackson defended <