Could Tar Heels' backup point guard be no one?

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina coach Roy Williams said something interesting on Monday that you might have missed. He said the Tar Heels would experiment with a kind of offense that doesn’t necessarily require a point guard. This offense, Williams said, would be more rooted in a team passing game – which implies a lot of ball movement.

Of course, Strickland served as the backup point guard to Marshall. And without Strickland, White is really the only other point guard on the roster. And he is young and unproven to this point. So it makes sense that Williams might want to experiment with an offense that doesn’t require a point guard.

As of Tuesday afternoon, though, P.J. Hairston hadn’t yet seen what that offense would look like. He presumed the Tar Heels would practice it later on Tuesday.

“I’m looking forward to it, just to see how it works,” Hairston said.

By the way, Hairston said Strickland has been in good spirits since suffering his injury. Hairston said that in the locker room the other day, Strickland told Reggie Bullock that he’d have to learn how to be a backup point guard now that Bullock is assuming Strickland’s role as the starting shooting guard.

“I think Reggie was standing in the locker room and dribbling a basketball saying, 'I’ve got to get ready,' ” Hairston said. “It’s kind of like a joke.”


-- Andrew Carter