North Carolina basketball: Starting lineup options for next season

Worst case scenario

• Point guard: Seventh Woods
• Shooting guard: Brandon Robinson
• Small Forward: Garrison Brooks
• Power Forward: Sterling Manley
• Center: Armando Bacot

This would be the nightmare scenario for North Carolina, who loses out on its top remaining recruits and doesn’t land an impact player in the transfer season. The point guard spot would suffer the most as this case pushes Seventh Woods into the starting lineup.

Woods is a fine contributor for the Tar Heels and offers tremendous value as a glue guy off the bench, meaning he would probably be a bit out of place in the starting five. The best the Tar Heels could hope for here is that Woods starts for the first half of the season before Francis is ready to run the offense in the second half.

This lineup does have experience on its side, with four of the five starters playing roles on this year’s team. Experience does go a long way in college basketball as teams like Virginia, Michigan State, and Auburn demonstrated in the NCAA Tournament.

The problem for North Carolina is that this group is light on star power, meaning they will need to really gel as a team in order to compete for the ACC title, let alone a national championship. Don’t bet against Williams getting the most out of his team in any scenario, but if this situation comes to pass the Tar Heels’ upside is limited.