College Basketball Betting Odds

Heels' Frasor Medically Cleared - July 15th, 2008

By Jordan Walters
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

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The University of North Carolina basketball team will be returning all five starters and its top six scorers next year, including national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough, from last year’s team that won a school-record 36 games and reached the program’s 17th Final Four.

There’s no question this club will be a preseason No. 1, yet why is it significant that a backup will also be returning next season?

Because Bobby Frasor is one of the Heels’ top defenders and can play either guard position. Frasor was cleared by doctors recently to begin full training after being sidelined for six months following a knee ligament tear. He was hurt against Nevada on Dec. 27 and missed 27 games of his junior season.

Frasor started all 31 games as a freshman in 2005-06 and has 207 assists in 71 career contests. He had 25 assists and only 10 turnovers and was Carolina’s defensive player of the game five times in the first dozen games last year, so you can see why coach Roy Williams is excited to have him back.

“Bobby has done a great job rehabbing his knee and is way ahead of where people thought he would be,” says Williams. “It will be a real challenge for him to get his quickness back to where it was when he got hurt, because he had improved his foot speed and lateral quickness maybe as much as anybody I ever coached. He has to get back to that stage where he does a good job keeping the ball in front of him. He’s a great leader and the best talker we have on defense.”

Frasor was averaging about 16 minutes a game last year before his injury. He will battle new arrival Larry Drew II for backup point guard minutes, and should play some again play some shooting guard.

 

“Of course I’m not going to jump right into five-on-five,” said Frasor, who averaged 3.0 points and 2.2 assists in his shortened 2007-08 season. “I’ve been shooting and cutting before, but I’m probably going to just start playing one-on-one and two-on-two and gradually get back into the flow of things.

“I’m feeling as strong as I ever have,” Frasor said. “They always say [an injury] makes you stronger and I think I’ve worked a lot and put a lot of time into this.”

The school has filed a medical hardship waiver with the NCAA in hopes of getting Frasor an additional year of eligibility after this upcoming season. However, that’s unlikely, as Frasor’s 12 games played last season is two more than the NCAA limit (30 percent of a team’s games) for an extra season.

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