UNC Basketball: 5 Things on Tar Heels' Holiday Wish List

It has been an up-and-down start to the North Carolina basketball season.

With solid, neutral-court wins over UCLA and Florida, UNC showed it can handle good teams. Losses to Butler and Iowa bracketing those wins, though, shows how far Carolina still has to go.

Similarly to last season, there are times when this team can look very bad. This isn't always the case, but it means there are a number of things the Tar Heels can wish for this holiday season.

No team is perfect, and Carolina is far from it. Yet if these wishes come true, it will be a very happy holiday for Tar Heel nation.

A Win over Kentucky

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Yes, Kentucky is 9-0 and the unanimous top team in the nation.

Yes, the Wildcats just defeated then-No. 6 Texas even though they couldn't shoot or convert much of anything offensively.

Yes, they defeated then-No. 4 Kansas by a cataclysmic, earth-altering 32 points.

And yes, ESPN had a "legitimate" poll a few weeks ago pondering if this Kentucky squad could defeat the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers in a seven-game series.

This would usually be where the "but" comes in, except there isn't one coming. Other than the idiocy of the ESPN poll and the shaky outside shooting, there is nothing negative to say about Kentucky right now.

Which is why a win for Carolina when the two face off Saturday would be a holiday dream come true. The first chink in the Wildcat armor would do more than reset everyone's expectations for UK; it would vault UNC back into the upper echelon of the sport.

Three-Point Shooting

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The free-throw shooting for this team is finally coming around. What isn't improving at nearly the same rate is the outside shooting.

Carolina is currently ranked 293rd in the nation in made threes, 241st in three-point attempts and 307th in three-point percentage. Things have…been better.

While no one expected Nate Britt, J.P. Tokoto or most of the roster to be even average from deep, the two main culprits of the team's poor start have been its two players with the most attempts.

Justin Jackson is second on the Heels in three-point attempts with 18. He's only connected on four of those shots.

Marcus Paige is once again the leader in three-point shooting for this team with 53 attempts. However, he's only made 34 percent of them.

Three-point shooting isn't the be-all-end-all in this sport, but it's a powerful weapon that UNC hasn't been able to harness in a few seasons now. If the threes start dropping next semester, the rest of the conference better watch out.

Extra Fouls for Brice Johnson

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Brice Johnson is a talented, athletic, yet often foolish basketball player.

He has poor court sense and a low game IQ. This results in him making poor passes, taking contested shots and the like. However, the most clear representation is him committing a bad foul.

This seemingly happens to Johnson at least twice a game. Since players are only allowed four personal fouls before being disqualified on the fifth, wasting two is kind of a big deal.

You will know it when it happens because, after a whistle, Johnson will incredulously glare at the referee, raise his hands high in the air, stomp back to the bench and receive nothing but frustrated looks back.

In eight games thus far this season, Johnson has committed 25 total fouls, more than three per game.

If he was simply allowed six, as in the NBA, Johnson wouldn't be forced to go to the bench so soon in first halves. He would also be more of a factor on the boards and blocking shots with an extra foul to spare.

Alas, the NCAA isn't normally known for altering rules midseason for the benefit of one individual.

The Old Marcus Paige

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2014-15 Marcus Paige is not a bad player. He's been just OK. He leads the team in scoring at 14.0 points per game, mostly due to the flattened bell curve Roy Williams is employing with his minute allocations.

For the preseason AP All-American, just OK isn't going to cut it, though.

The shooting has not been up to snuff for what we expect of Paige and what Paige surely expects of himself. His .355/.800/.340 line would be a precipitous drop from where he was a season ago.

And that's the Marcus Paige North Carolina needs. Many expected Paige to jump a level this season by becoming even better than his sophomore self. Right now, UNC just needs that Paige back.

As an apt depiction for how his season is going, Paige has missed seven free throws this year; not bad, right? He didn't miss his seventh free throw last year until January 18, the 17th game of the season.

An Extrapolated Kennedy Meeks

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Kennedy Meeks is a monster; everyone knows this. He currently ranks in the top five in the ACC in field-goal percentage, two-point field goals, defensive rebounds, total rebounds, rebound percentage and block percentage.

The only downside to his game has been his minute totals. At just 23 minutes a night, it's hard for Meeks' play to have the full effect that it should.

His minutes have been limited to keep his conditioning and fouls in check, as well as to presumably keep his production up. Rarely does a player hold onto limited-minute production if he sees a large jump in playing time.

This is why the best holiday gift of all for North Carolina would be an extrapolated Kennedy Meeks. Just imagine if UNC could get this Meeks at 40 minutes per game.

Well, you don't have to imagine. Here are the per-40-minute averages of one Kennedy Meeks: 23.9 points, 17.6 rebounds, 3.3 blocks and 1.5 steals on 64 percent shooting, and at 4.6 fouls, he technically wouldn't be fouling out!