Late Night with Roy kicks off the season with dancing, skits

Projected on white sheets dangling from the ceiling of the Smith Center on Friday, shadowy images of the North Carolina men’s basketball team preceded player introductions at Late Night with Roy.

And to whom did the Tar Heels turn but highly anticipated newcomer Harrison Barnes to lead this year’s squad out of the shadows and onto the court.

After last year’s criticized NIT season, leaving memories of last year’s disappointment behind certainly seemed to be the theme of the annual basketball kickoff.

The program ushered in a new century of North Carolina basketball and focused plenty on the team’s chemistry with its four new players — the freshmen trio of Barnes, Reggie Bullock and Kendall Marshall along with graduate student transfer Justin Knox.

But it was the women’s basketball team that truly kicked off the night’s festivities as it celebrated senior Jessica Breland’s return to the team after her battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma last season.

After a “Dancing with the Stars” skit gave each of the team’s members a chance to judge or dance their way through a tango, country line dance, shag and a musical number, the team scrimmaged with assistant coach Charlotte Smith to preview its upcoming season.

Following the women’s debut, the men’s team’s true rookies announced their choice to attend Rameses’ party with host Stuart Scott in an amusing parody of LeBron James’ decision to join the Miami Heat — announced on an ESPN special that was ironically hosted by the very same Scott.

“I liked the freshman skit,” sophomore John Henson said. “It was kind of funny. They probably did it the best because they had the easiest one, but it was a lot of fun watching other people’s.”

After the trio of Barnes, Bullock and Marshall celebrated its choice to attend the night’s events with a dance routine set to Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA,” the attention turned to Henson and the rest of the sophomore class.

Leslie McDonald and Dexter Strickland donned velcroed-on Snuggies alongside Henson and “Dougie” danced their way across center court while teaching the audience how to “Snuggie.”

The upperclassmen, joined by Knox, continued the program’s progression into a new era and fist-pumped their way through a Jersey Shore skit and dance complete with spiked stiff hair, wife beaters and gold chains.

“That was the first time I’ve ever worn a wife beater — or whatever, I don’t even know what they’re called,” junior Tyler Zeller said. “And then the gold chain, that was all-around interesting. We don’t see many people like that (in Indiana).”

As the team prepared for its final round of dancing to “Celebration” with the UNC dance team, video footage of the Tar Heels’ dominant performance in the Bahamas previewed what fans could expect in the night’s exhibition game.

But the game couldn’t truly begin until the team gathered together in a dance circle, top hats, canes and all to show its chemistry one final time.

Even the coaches joined in on the final hoorah, as the players tipped their hats and placed them on the heads of Roy Williams and his assistants, who joined the circle one by one to show off their own rhythm with the team.

“We practiced,” Zeller said. “We always have, like, five days of practice, and then being around all these guys — they’re always dancing and doing stuff, so just being around them helped me a lot, just to be able to pick up a little bit of rhythm.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.