Bullock, Barnes best Wolfpack trio in summer league

DURHAM — If you did not kick North Carolina's basketball team while it was down last year, forget about another chance this year.

That's how good Harrison Barnes and Reggie Bullock are, or make that Reggie Bullock and Harrison Barnes, at least on Tuesday night at the SJG Greater NC Pro-Am at N.C. Central.

The UNC freshmen duo was spectacular, combining for 55 points in an 82-72 win over a team featuring N.C. State's ballyhooed freshmen in an electric atmosphere at McLendon-McDougald Gym.

It was March in July for one summer night. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of fans were turned away from the old gym, all hoping for a glimpse of the future.

If you were one of the 3,000-plus to get into the building, you saw Team Stackhouse, featuring Barnes, Bullock and UNC forward John Henson, against Team McGladrey, which started N.C. State's Ryan Harrow, Lorenzo Brown, C.J. Williams, C.J. Leslie and Tracy Smith.

None of the freshmen, on either side, disappointed but Bullock, who pumped in 30 points, stole the show.

The book on Bullock, a 6-6 wing from Kinston, is that he can shoot, sort of a newer version of Wayne Ellington, the shooting guard on UNC's 2009 national title team.

Based on Tuesday's performance, Bullock's got more game than that, more like a senior-year Danny Green than just a spot-up shooter like Ellington. He can handle the ball and create his own shot off the dribble.

Both Bullock and Barnes, who's supposed to be the top recruit in the country (his light was stolen by classmates Bullock and Duke's Kyrie Irving, whose team played before the main event), showed an aggressiveness in taking the ball to the basket which is exactly what UNC was missing in a disastrous 5-11 NIT season.

Now, one summer league game with little defense and zero offensive structure does not a Final Four make, but the raw talent of both Bullock and Barnes, who added 25 points, is conspicuous.

Considering the stage, a packed, molten-hot gym, with fans of both sides — and plenty of trash talk by players and patrons alike — and it's easy to get a player's best effort.

The pitfalls for UNC, which will also get significant numbers from Henson and returning forward Tyler Zeller, will be when Barnes and Bullock have an off shooting night.

State's trio of five-star recruits, led by Leslie's 21 points, looked the part of their press clippings. They definitely won the layup line.

Harrow, with his middle-school frame, wowed everyone in the building with his NBA hops. As the dunking exhibition in warmups showed, the reports of the maybe 6-foot guard's vertical leap (near 40 inches) have not been exaggerated.

Brown, who finished with 15 points, was locked in a playground battle with Bullock. He showed a polish and versatility to his game that should elevate N.C. State, also 5-11 in 2010, in the ACC standings.

Both sides knew the sweaty gym was filled to see them and they obliged by taking turns going one-on-one and trading jumpers. That wasn't conducive to Smith's low-post game, the Pack's leading scorer last year, and he was often relegated to background music.

The season won't go that way for the Pack, obviously, because coach Sidney Lowe will still go inside-out, even with an upgrade at all three perimeter positions.

And if there was any doubt about Leslie's position, he's a "3." The difference in size, and really skill set, between Barnes and Leslie is negligible, although Leslie has more bounce to his game.

It's dangerous to make too much out of one game, let alone one in July, but you can't help but conclude that this basketball season has potential to be special for all sides of the Triangle.