Explaining The Tar Heels Motion Offense

The Tar Heels men’s basketball team today can’t really boast the strongest lineup of players on paper. However, they won this year’s championship. This is largely because of the motion offense that the UNC has chosen to employ in recent years.

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Essentially, the motion offense of the UNC is an attack that makes them unpredictable in terms of how they intend to claim a basket, with even spacing, anticipation, and a natural sense of where the defense is weakest.

The Tar Heels don’t have a luxury of big men, but they make full use of the speed of their smaller players. The point guard go essentially gives the point guard the green light to coast from end to end with a go-ahead basket. This utterly confuses the other team because along the way, the point guard has several options at his disposal, and then he decides to go for the basket himself.

The motion offense also effectively opens up at least two men on the court situated in the wings. This is called the wing attack. Basically, wingmen are no more than three passes away from anyone else who has the ball. With all that movement, a wingman inevitably gets free to take the three from either side of the court.

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The pitch ahead is the sneakiest offense that the UNC uses. This is effective because an offensive player who attacks the basket in motion off a break draws so much attention to him. Because of this, a split second is only what it takes before he passes off to a trailing teammate on the last minute.

This is precisely how they won the championship.

I’m John Bradberry from Charlotte, NC.  I'm currently taking up sports administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more news on the Tar Heels, follow me on Facebook.

Three Places To Go The Next Time You Visit North Carolina

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North Carolina offers one of the most diverse landscapes in the country. Its shores bordering the Atlantic Ocean offers some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It also has the highest peak in North America in the Appalachian Mountains. There are a lot of places to go there for your next vacation.

Here are three places you can go for your next summer vacation.

Charlotte : The city of Charlotte is a great place to visit on a romantic getaway or a family vacation. There are a lot of good restaurants, cafes, music venues, theaters and fun tours. The places to visit are the Wing Haven Gardens and Bird Sanctuary, the Carolinas Aviation Museum, Discovery Place, and the Charlotte Museum of History.

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park : This is the country’s most visited national park, and one of the best places to visit in North Carolina. It is home to thousands of animal and plant life, ancient mountains, and the remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain Culture.

Boone : Named after the American pioneer, Daniel Boone the place is known for its rugged beauty surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here, you can visit the Tweetsie Railroad, the Grandfather Mountain, and the Mile High Swinging Bridge. There are also a variety of theater and shopping centers to relax after a day of extreme activities.

Hi, I’m John Bradberry. I was born and raised in Charlotte, NC. I’m currently taking up sports administration at the University of Carolina. Visit my Google+ page for more on my beloved North Carolina.

Michael Jordan’s greatest moments as a Tar Heel

We all know of Michael Jordan’s illustrious career as a Bull. We have yet to see someone who will outperform him. But even before being drafted into the NBA, Jordan already had some flashes of “His airness”. Here are Michael Jordan’s greatest moments as a UNC Tar Heel. 

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The cradle dunk vs Maryland 

This dunk was one of MJ’s signature dunks, he first showcased it during the closing time against the Maryland on January 12, 1984. With the time winding down and his team up 72-62, Jordan ran the fastbreak off a blocked shot and threw down the dunk with a second remaining. 

https://youtu.be/jqwVTE4k-SM 

Career-high 39 points against Georgia Tech 

Jordan set his college scoring record early in his college career when he exploded for some high-scoring performance in his sophomore year. The Yellow Jackets couldn’t do anything to stop him and lost 72-65. 

https://youtu.be/KmIWSI2IKU0 

Championship winning shot against Georgetown 

Jordan took the basketball spotlight as a freshman when he sank the game-winning shot to take home the 1982 National Championship against Georgetown. Jordan took a pass on the left side and connected a 16-foot jumper with 15 seconds left that gave the UNC a 63-62 lead. You can probably here Jordan saying “there’s more where that came from.” And more there were. 

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Hi I’m John Bradberry. I’m from Charlotte, NC. A student of UNC. Follow me on Twitter to get the updates about the UNC Tar Heels.

North Carolina’s Greatest Basketball Players

For over a century, the North Carolina Tar Heels have been an overwhelming force in college basketball.  It makes sense that the players that have worn the blue and white have also been some of the greatest the game has ever seen.  Let’s take a closer look at the best Tar Heels in history.

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Michael Jordan

What can be said about MJ that hasn’t been said before?  He’s basketball’s GOAT.  As a Tar Heel, he wasn’t as dominant as he was in the NBA, but Jordan was already a high-flyer, and he proved he could hit game-winning shots.  Although he opted to forego the rest of his college career for a shot at the pros, the North Carolina faithful will always regard MJ as their favorite son.

Vince Carter

Speaking of high flyers, the greatest dunker the NBA has ever seen (arguably) was one a Tar Heel.  Yes sir, Vince Carter once delivered highlight reels in a Tar Heel jersey.  He was a leader and an amazing player for North Carolina before he was drafted by the NBA.

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James Worthy

The J-Train, as he was known with the Los Angeles Lakers showtime squad, James Worthy made quite a mark in the NCAA alongside Michael Jordan.  As a college player, Worthy already exhibited signs of being an exception forward who could run and finish breaks like nobody’s business.  A player that versatile could not be overlooked.


John Bradberry here, huge Tar Heel supporter.  Learn more about North Carolina basketball by subscribing to this Twitter account.

Not Your Grandpa’s Ballgame: The Evolving Rules And Styles Of Basketball

Basketball is hardly the same game it was when it first started out. Today, you might even notice that the teams play with strategies far removed from those in the 1990s. Even then, the game played during the golden age of the legends of basketball would, in turn, be alien to the kind of basketball first proposed by Dr. James Naismith.

The 13 rules of 'boxball'

Basketball was supposed to be played using an adapted box, which had been replaced by modified peach basket. The original ball was also an adapted soccer ball. Much like today, the object of the game was to dribble and shoot the ball into place. The hole in the basket was added later after Dr. N got sick of having to retrieve the ball repeatedly.

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Way back in the formative years of the sport, there were only 13 rules. Compare that to the more than 100 rules we have today. One of the most obvious changes in the rules was in the number of players on the court at one time, which didn’t have much of a limit. Today, there are only five players allowed on the court per team.

Picking up the pace

High schools and colleges gradually adopted the sport as it grew more popular. However, this spelled the arrival of many of the changes that led to the game we have today. This was owing to the growing incidence of injury. Even with the changes, it was still an incredibly slow game; the teams had no limits to how long they can hold on to the ball before attempting to shoot, plus games were low-scoring.

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This all changed with the arrival of the shot clock in 1954, which brought speed to the game by giving teams only 24 seconds to score. This also forced a change in strategy for basketball, which now became the fast-paced game that fans enjoy today.

I'm John Bradberry, college student and all around sports fan, Charlotte, NC, born and raised. Catch more thoughts, views, and trivia on basketball and other sports on my blog.

Jordan before the NBA: A glance into a legend's collegiate career

Michael Jordan is one of the most decorated players in the NBA, having made an impressive record in his heyday. He was the childhood hero of many a young fan, yours truly included, and remains admired long after his retirement from the league. You have to admit that his track in the 1990s was incredibly impressive even today.

But many laypeople would be quite surprised that Jordan was far from the only excellent player produced by UNC, or for that matter does he rank the highest among all its alumni (though, let's face it, he did make the top 10; we're talking about Jordan here).

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At least two players performed statistically better than him in the entire history of the university. Phil Ford, who later became a gold-winning Olympian, held an impressive record of statistics as a UNC alumnus, and the Lakers' Big Game James (a contemporaneous co-alumnus of His Airness) surpassed him statistically back in college. In fact, it was under James Worthy's captainship of the Heels that Jordan would make the historic shot in '82 that would then characterize his future stellar career in professional basketball. This would parallel his best moments later in his career where his best performance was but a complement to precision teamwork.

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So, the young Jordan didn't achieve an all time superlative at UNC. Indeed, he never seemed to shy away from his occasional failures when speaking about his successes. And don't think I'm dissing my idol here. Even though he was far from an overnight success, he was still a force to be reckoned with back in college, and it shows. He was named Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Rookie of the Year for 1982 and led the ACC in scoring in both his sophomore and Junior seasons, where he was named college player of the year for both by The Sporting News.

It just goes to show, you don't become the Greatest of All Time overnight.

Hey, John Bradberry, Charlotte-bred, true blue NC college sports fan here. If you like college sports, you might want to drop by my other blog.