UNC Basketball: Factors That Will Make or Break Tar Heels in 2014-15

North Carolina officially begins practice for the 2014-15 season on Friday, with six weeks of workouts until the Nov. 14 opener against North Carolina Central.

Though the Tar Heels have had informal practices and strategy sessions throughout the summer, this will be when the real preparation starts. Conditioning and drills will be combined with set plays and game situations, all with the hope that when games begin all of the kinks will be worked out.

We won't know for certain what to make of this Carolina team until it gets into the season itself, but we do have an idea of some things that will determine whether 2014-15 is a successful one or falls below expectations.

Freshmen Contributions

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Theo Pinson

North Carolina landed the No. 3 overall recruiting class for 2014-15, according to 247Sports. The three-man class features two 5-star prospects (forwards Justin Jackson and Theo Pinson) and 4-star guard Joel Berry.

All three newcomers are expected to make significant contributions to the Tar Heels this season, and with UNC needing to replace two starters, there's a good chance at least one freshman will be in the lineup when the season begins. The 6'8" Jackson figures to be in the mix at small forward, while the 6'0" Berry could play the point if coach Roy Williams decides to go small and have Marcus Paige slide over to the 2.

Pinson, a 6'6" wing, may end up being Carolina's defensive specialist based on the reviews he's gotten for his play on that end of the court.

"I'm not worried about going out there and trying to score 50 points, which I know won't happen," Pinson told the Associated Press.

Carolina will need all three freshmen to quickly get past being, well, freshmen, and contribute as much as any other player. If that doesn't happen, depth could be an issue as the season progresses.

Paige's Pace of Play

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Marcus Paige averaged 35.6 minutes per game last season, which was more by necessity than preference. Paige probably wouldn't have minded being in there even more, while Williams would have loved to give his top scorer additional rest.

Paige doesn't take plays off, so in order to ensure the 6'1" junior doesn't break down toward the end of the season, Carolina will need to make sure not to overuse him.

"With our style of play, there's no question that conditioning is very important for us," Paige wrote in a first-person account on GoHeels.com. "But I really don't look back on it much during games. In games, I'll usually think, 'OK, there is this much time left until the next TV timeout, I can grind for another minute and a half.'"

Nate Britt was pretty much Paige's only backup last season, and many times the two would play alongside each other. That could happen again this year, as well as with freshman Berry in there, but with that additional guard in the rotation there will be more opportunities to rest Paige and keep him fresh.

Frontcourt Physicality

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Top rebounder James Michael McAdoo left early for the NBA, but North Carolina may be in better shape in the frontcourt without him. Literally.

Sophomore Kennedy Meeks has slimmed his 6'9" frame down to 270 pounds, far below the 317 he weighed when he arrived on campus last summer. He averaged 7.6 points and 6.1 rebounds last season but tired easily and only played 16.3 minutes per game.

Now lighter on his feet, Meeks should be able to stay in the game for longer stretches while also being able to move more athletically. During the summer he showed off his hops with this Instagrammed dunk.

On the other end of the spectrum, Brice Johnson has bulked up from 187 as a freshman to 228 for his junior year. At 6'9", he will now be able to better hold his own physically against power forwards in the paint.

There will be no shortage of formidable front lines for Carolina to deal with this season, and having Johnson, Meeks and reserves Isaiah Hicks and Joel James able to hold their own inside will be a key to success.

Handling the Schedule

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With at least 13 games against teams that made last season's NCAA tournament on the schedule, there will be few breaks in terms of the level of competition North Carolina faces in 2014-15.

But even perceived easy stretches can provide pitfalls, as the Tar Heels found last year by opening 0-2 in ACC play against Wake Forest and Miami (Florida). The Miami game was the conference home opener.

The potential pitfalls are all over the schedule, even in the very beginning when UNC opens with a pair of teams—North Carolina Central and Robert Morris—who won their respective conferences' regular-season titles in 2013-14, and continues with the stacked lineup at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.

Games against Iowa (in Chapel Hill), at Kentucky and against Ohio State in Chicago will make the remainder of nonconference play a challenge, and then comes the loaded ACC schedule. It starts off relatively favorable, with five of the first seven games at the Dean E. Smith Center, then things get really tough.

UNC has a three-game road trip to Boston College, Pittsburgh and Duke from Feb. 7-18, its longest conference trek since 2000-01, according to Adam Lucas of GoHeels.com. And that's right after visiting Louisville and then hosting defending ACC champ Virginia.

Another two-game trip, to Miami and Georgia Tech, comes right before the regular-season finale at home against Duke.

With such a challenging schedule, Carolina will need to make sure to keep its composure throughout.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.