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UNC's Terrence Brown Had Excellent Comments to Michael Malone Ahead of Season
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- UNC's Terrence Brown Had Excellent Comments to Michael Malone Ahead of Season
(USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
With the regular season set to begin on Monday against Western Carolina, North Carolina has no more exhibition games to work on things. The Tar Heels have to hope what they've done throughout the offseason has been enough, as questions remain about how this team will look.
Ultimately, it will come down to how North Carolina's best players play, with Terrence Brown, Matt Able, and Neoklis Avdalas as the top priorities. Avdalas has already proven at the ACC level that he can be an elite player, while Brown starred at Utah last season, and Able was a very good player for NC State last year.
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As for how some players have looked in the preseason, Brown is coming off a very impressive nearly 30-point performance against Charlotte.
He filled up the stat sheet offensively and showed he has a real chance to be among the leading scorers in college basketball.
Speaking to reporters about him, it sounds like Brown has also done some other things well, too.
According to head coach Michael Malone, the young man understands that he needs his teammates to make him better.
While Brown has been tasked with putting the ball in his hands throughout a lot of his college career, especially at Fairleigh Dickinson prior to transferring to Utah, that's going to be different with Avdalas on the court.
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"Yeah. I think he understands. He came to me one day just saying, 'Listen, I understand that Neo's 6-7. He's a very good player. He's a playmaker. He makes everybody better. And I'm just going to trust in that process. I'm going to trust you. You've had great success, and I know you're going to put me in a position to have success.'
"You love to hear that. You don't fight it. I will make sure I allow you to play your game within the constraints of a team," Malone said.
It's very promising to hear that Brown is not only willing to take a backseat in terms of having the ball in his hands, but he trusts the rest of his teammates.
This is going to be a guy who is going to be in a different position than he's been in throughout a lot of other stages in his career.
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He hasn't been tasked with difficult things at prior stops, but playing at North Carolina brings more pressure than anywhere else he's ever been. He's going to have to hope he can figure that out, though there's reason to believe that he will, and he's proving that throughout the exhibition stages of the season.
