Given his style of play and the fact that Randle is actively considering North Carolina, there’s certainly a chance he could be beginning in 2013.

“The one thing that [North Carolina] is going to need, they’re going to need a Julius Randle to be a Harrison Barnes that can do certain things on the wing and he can play inside if he has to,” Nate Britt Sr., the father of 2013 point guard and North Carolina commit Nate Britt, told FiveStarBasketball.com.

“[Randle] can do multiple things. He can just do it all. He’s that type of kid.”

Click here to read the full story at FiveStarBasketball.com.

**And check out the Five Star Big Board on Carolina here.

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Strickland, a Rahway, N.J. native who starred at Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick, suffered the injury early in the second half in Blacksburg as he drove to the basket.

“Positive thinking! Everything happens for a reason, God always has a plan! Thanks to everyone who is praying for me! I appreciate it!” Strickland Tweeted Friday night.

Carolina coach Roy Williams was unavailable for comment immediately on Friday night. But after his team’s victory on Thursday night Williams said, “I hate it for Dexter.”

Strickland started every game this year for the 16-3 Tar Heels and shared the team lead in steals with 25 and was second in assists with 39. He was shooting a team-high 57 percent from the floor and was averaging 7.5 points per game.

Surgery to repair the torn ligament has not been scheduled.

The loss of Strickland leaves the Tar Heels with no experienced backup to Kendall Marshall at point guard and could have a significant impact on their chances to win an NCAA championship.

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The  former Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick star’s knee buckled as he drove on a fastbreak and pulled up to shoot from 10 feet out early in the second half of  Carolina’s 82-68 win at Virginia Tech.

“Just want to thank everyone for praying for me..I really appreciate it! I’ll be ok!” Strickland Tweeted after the game.

The Winston-Salem Journal reported that Strickland was “wearing a support with no ice wrapped to the knee with five minutes left.”

“I have no idea about the extent of his injury,” Carolina coach Roy Williams said, according to CBSSports.com.

The 6-foot-3 Strickland is averaging 7.9 points and 2.1 assists.

Harrison Barnes went for 27 in the win.

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Special to ZAGSBLOG

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Looking back on it, the weight and expectations placed on Harrison Barnes before he even suited up for the University of North Carolina as a freshman last season were unfair and they weighed on him early in his rookie campaign.

Barnes was a highly-decorated high school player out of Ames (Ia.) High School. A McDonald’s All-American in 2010, the 6-foot-9, 210-pound swingman was the USA Today National Player of the Year and a consensus first-team All-American a year after being named The Sporting News National Player of the Year as a junior. Over his final two years of high school, Ames went 53-0 and won back-to-back state titles.

After all the accolades and all the hype, Barnes was named an Associated Press Preseason All-American as a freshman. For perspective, no freshman had ever been named an AP Preseason All-American as Barnes was. He was then looked upon to shoulder much of the load for head coach Roy Williams.

It took Barnes a while to get comfortable and figure everything out at Chapel Hill under the bright lights of major college basketball, but for all intents and purposes, he has done just that. Now, about midway through his second season, Barnes has continued to morph into the team-leading star everyone thought he would be. He’s more efficient with his shooting, he’s smarter with the ball in his hands and all of his steady play has helped the Tar Heels emerge once again as a national title contender.

“I definitely had to change my game a little coming out of high school because not only was I trying to adapt to the defenses I was facing, but I had to get used to good teammates like John (Henson) and ‘Z’ (Tyler Zeller),” Barnes said. “Another thing was mixing up point guards, going from Larry (Drew II) to Kendall (Marshall), so getting used to all of that took a while.”

Barnes has adapted as necessary and UNC is better for it. The latest example came on New Year’s Day when the projected NBA lottery pick scored 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting in just 22 minutes of a 102-65 win over Monmouth at the Dean Smith Center. The 8-for-14 showing is his ninth game of shooting at least 50 percent from the field and his 13th game in double figures.

That type of consistent strong play has benefitted the 13-2 Heels and will be needed moving forward when they open always-rugged ACC play on Saturday against Boston College.

“We’re in a good position right now. We’ve done some good things in pre-conference play and the biggest thing now is to keep building, you never want to regress,” Barnes said. “Hopefully, we can continue to play with good habits, start games off strong and with energy. If you do that, it’s usually easier on the back end.”

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“I’m not sure if I would take that kid [Davis] No. 1,” Barkley said Thursday on a TNT conference call in response to my question. “I mean, that Barnes kid is a stud.”

The 6-foot-8 Barnes is averaging 17.5 points and 4.1 rebounds at North Carolina, while the 6-10 Davis is averaging 11.6 points, 9.1 rebounds and 4.1 blocks at Kentucky.

Barkley said he watched a lot of college hoops during the NBA lockout and isn’t sold on Davis, who is projected by many as the No. 1 pick.

“That kid at Kentucky, he’s going to have to some gain weight,” Barkley said. “I’m about to send John Calipari some money to get him a weight room down there.”

Don’t ask Shaquille O’Neal his opinion on college players, though.

“I’m not really a fan of college basketball,” he said. “When I’m at home I watch a lot of NBA TV and Maury Povich. I don’t know who’s who in college, I really don’t.”

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Dexter Strickland

After talking about all the “little mistakes” that led to No. 5 Carolina’s 73-72 loss to No. 1 Kentucky, Strickland said he wants the rematch.

“Oh, absolutely,” the former Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick star told SNY.tv. “Absolutely, we gotta get them.”

A year ago, of course, the two college basketball heavyweights met twice, with Carolina winning the regular season encounter at home and then losing the big one in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in Newark.

After Saturday’s scintillating game featuring as many as 10 first-round NBA Draft picks was played at such a high level, college hoops fans can only hope for a second go-round.

“Let’s hope if we have to play them again, when it is the very last game of the season, for both teams, in one place, and that’s when we play them again,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.

The NCAA championship game is set for April 2 in New Orleans, and Strickland — who won the 2009 New Jersey Tournament of Champions title alongside Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist — believes his team can make a run at playing in that game.

Carolina started this season as the preseason No. 1 and has already dropped two games  – to UNLV and now Kentucky.

But Jackie Manuel, a guard on the 2005 Carolina NCAA championship, told this year’s Heels that his team won a title despite losing four games that season.

“He said they lost four games and they won the national championship,” Strickland said. “We lost two games so far and we can’t hang our heads. We gotta get better.

“No team’s gonna go undefeated. I think we’re a great team. I think we have all the tools to get the job done.”

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“Roy [Williams] and I have talked and both of us still want to play the series,” Calipari said Friday. “It’s important for both programs, but there’s only so many games you can play.”

The two storied programs will meet for the 12th straight year, and have continually re-upped a series of two-year, home-and-home affairs.

Yet with both the SEC and the ACC on the brink of conference expansion, things have become muddled to the point where Calipari hosted a poll on his blog asking fans if they had to eliminate one annual game, who would be sacrificed — Carolina, Indiana or Louisville?

The SEC is set to expand from 12 to 14 teams next year with the additions of Missouri and Texas A&M, while the ACC will add Syracuse and Pitt — in 2013 or 2014.

That, in turn, requires more SEC and ACC league games and Calipari hopes the SEC schedule remains at 16 league games instead of 18.

An 18-game schedule leaves just nine openings for non-conference affairs.

“I’m hoping our league  stays at 16 games,” he said. “If we stay at 16 it’s an easy decision.”

Yet in addition to annual games with Carolina, Indiana (Dec. 10) and Louisville (Dec. 31), Kentucky this year also played Kansas in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden, and St. John’s Thursday in the Big East/SEC Challenge.

“You start adding league games and they’ve got these made-for-TV games and you got the Big East Challenge,” Calipari said. “We’re one of those teams that is locked into a certain number of games, and very, very few do that.”

Still, he sounds optimistic about continuing the Carolina series.

“We still may be playing it,” he said. “There’s other kind of ways of playing this game, and we may be able to figure that out.”

Photo: Getty Images

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LEXINGTON, Ky.

It’s whether you’re in the top spot when it’s all over.

Nobody knows that better than Kentucky freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, whose team is currently No. 1 entering Saturday’s much-hyped matchup with his former Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick teammate Dexter Strickland and No. 5 North Carolina at Rupp Arena.

Like Kentucky, Gilchrist’s St. Patrick team was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of last year.

And in fact the 6-foot-7 Gilchrist was supremely confident heading into what turned out to be his final high school game against St. Anthony. And why shouldn’t he have been?

“Ain’t nobody stopping St. Pat’s,” he told me before that game in a quote that appeared in the documentary, “Prayer For a Perfect Season.”

But of course the perfect season didn’t materialize for the Celtics.

St. Patrick, a heavy favorite, was upset by Kyle Anderson, Myles Mack and the Friars in the unofficial national championship game and Gilchrist’s career ended abruptly at the Rutgers Athletic Center in the New Jersey state tournament.

A year later, Gilchrist is back on another No. 1 team early in the basketball season, averaging 11.4 points and 6.6 rebounds.

His old coach Kevin Boyle believes his former star has learned from last year’s experience..

“Certainly you’re not getting the attention in high school you’re getting at Kentucky but making the movie and everything else last year we were getting a lot of attention, more than a lot of college teams,” Boyle told SNY.tv.

“And I think that starts preparing you for what you’re going to receive at Kentucky. When you’re No. 1, everybody’s coming after you every game.”

Kentucky did not make Kidd-Gilchrist available to the media Friday, a day after the No. 1 Wildcats crushed St. John’s, 81-59, but he did sent a Twitter message to Strickland, a junior guard at Carolina averaging 8.4 points and 2.9 rebounds.

“Best of luck tomorrow, let’s go at it,” Gilchrist told Strickland.

“That’s the kind of guy he is and the kind of player he is,” Strickland said of Gilchrist. “He’s a great guy and he’s very competitive.  He’s a good friend. I remember when he first came to St. Pat.  He spent a couple of nights at my house with my dad and me.  We spent a lot of time together and grew close.  I consider him like a brother, so it will be a lot of fun to play against him [Saturday].  I’m looking forward to seeing him.”

Strickland and Gilchrist teamed together on the 2009 St. Pat’s team that also featured Kyrie Irving and won the New Jersey Tournament of Champions title.

“They were two of the better players that played at St. Pat’s,” said Boyle, now at Montverde (Fla.) Academy. “Obviously it makes you feel happy and proud that you were able to be a part of their career and hopefully help them develop to get to that level.”

Boyle said both players always had high motors and Kidd-Gilchrist learned about dedication and hard work from Strickland.

“I’m sure he picked some of those qualities up along the way and I think other kids picked it up by being in the St. Pat’s program,” Boyle said.

Gilchrist struggled against St. John’s, managing just 5 points on 1-of-7 shooting, and Kentucky coach John Calipari said the freshman gets too amped up at times.

“Not in just this game, every game,” Calipari said. “He starts off so hyped up that we almost have to calm him down a little bit.”

Still, whatever happens Saturday, it won’t mark the end of Gilchrist’s season or career.

And owning the No. 1 ranking this early in the season is hardly a determining factor for winning the national championship.

As the Wall Street Journal pointed out Friday, just five of the last 15 NCAA champions held the top spot in the poll for at least one week during the season.

For Gilchrist and his teammates, the true measuring stick will come later this year, during March Madness.

“If we play them a second time this season, I hope its very, very late in the season,” Calipari said of Carolina.

“I’d rather be playing them April 7th.”

The national championship game is actually April 2 in New Orleans.

And if these two teams match up then, that’s when being No. 1 will really matter for Gilchrist and his teammates.

CELTIC PRIDE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

Celtic Pride, Brian Fitzsimmons’ terrific book that documents the 2010-11 season at St. Patrick, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

The book documents not only Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s final season at St. Patrick, but the storied history of the Celtics that includes stars Shaheen Holloway, Al Harrington, Samuel Dalembert, Dexter Strickland and Kyrie Irving.

It’s a must-read for fans of hoops at every level.

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LEXINGTON, Ky.

That’s what Anthony Davis said after nearly pulling off only the second  triple-double in Kentucky history as the No. 1 Wildcats routed St. John’s 81-59 in the Big East/SEC Challenge at Rupp Arena.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” the 6-foot-10 Davis said after notching 15 points, 15 rebounds and 8 blocks. “Henson plays just like me. He’s a great shot-blocker and I just can’t wait to go against him Saturday.”

Davis, remember, considered attending North Carolina in the summer before his senior year of high school, but ultimately eliminated the Tar Heels from consideration.

Now, the highly anticipated North Carolina-Kentucky game will feature as many as 10 eventual first-round NBA Draft picks, as well as a couple second-rounders, one veteran NBA scout told SNY.tv.

But none is more intriguing than the 6-10 Davis, the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the Draft.

With his super-long arms, Davis caused havoc all over the court, reaching in for deflections and steals on the perimeter, blocking shots in the paint and flushing alley-oop dunks in transition.

“He’s probably the best shot-blocker in the country,” said the NBA scout.

“He’s a great shot-blocker, not only because of the length of his arms but he understands angles defensively. He and Henson have the longest arms. They have the longest arms in college basketball.”

Davis entered averaging 12.7 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.3 blocks, while the 6-11 Henson is averaging 14. 7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 3.3 blocks.

On one play against the Johnnies, Davis blocked Nurideen Lindsey’s shot on one end, leaving Lindsey prone on the floor as Davis raced downcourt and finished with an alley oop dunk on the other end.

“It’s like shooting over a tower,” Lindsey said. “I have watched him play a lot this season, but I didn’t know he was as long as he is and as athletic as he is until he caught a couple of the dunks and couple of the lob plays. He was blocking shots all over the place. It was tough.”

Added St. John’s acting coach Mike Dunlap: “He’s got really long arms and he’s very good at it. We wish we had one of those.”

Davis was a 6-foot-2 guard a couple of years ago, before he underwent a major growth spurt in high school and turned into the shot-blocking monster he is now.

He said it was his experience getting his own shot blocked as a guard that motivated him to want to reject other people’s shot attempts.

“That was kind of what has driven me to become a shot-blocker,” he said, adding that he had seven or eight triple-doubles with blocks in high schools. “People in there block my shot and I started screaming, ‘Ooh.’ And I’m like, ‘Alright…so I try to do the same thing.’”

Kentucky coach John Calipari has compared Davis to Marcus Camby.

“The great shot-blockers wait until you release it and then they go after the ball,” said Calipari, whose team notched a school-record 18 blocks. “So a ball fake doesn’t bother them because they are not leaving, anyway. So you can ball fake six times. Until you start to release the ball when it’s out of your hand, a shot-blocker will go after it. That’s what he does.”

Against North Carolina, Davis will not only be matched against Henson and Tyler Zeller down low, but he will be asked to alter or block shots of tremendous penetrators like Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall. 

Said Davis: “I’m looking forward to it Saturday.”

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Nate Britt is a Carolina Tar Heel.

The 6-foot-2, 160-pound Britt chose the Heels over Maryland, Georgetown, Virginia, Villanova and Arizona.

“At the end of the day, North Carolina felt like home to me,” Britt told FiveStarBasketball.com in an exclusive interview.

The Rivals No. 5 point guard in the Class of 2013, Britt figures to compete with 2012 signee Marcus Paige in the post-Kendall Marshall Era. Marshall could opt to leave for the NBA after this season or next. If he stays through his senior year, he and Britt would play together for one season.

“He’s a true point guard, a true lead guard who makes guys around him better,” Gonzaga coach Steve Turner said before the announcement. “He’s developed a way of creating for himself as well.

“He’s a guy who can push the ball and find guys in the open court as well as run the show in a halfcourt set. And on the ball he can defend it.”

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