Key Departures: Garrison Brooks, Day’Ron Sharpe, Walker Kessler, Andrew Platek

Projected Starting Lineup:

PG: Caleb Love (So.)

SG: Kerwin Walton Jr. (So.)

SF: Leaky Black (Sr.)

PF: Dawson Garcia (So.)

C: Armando Bacot Jr. (Jr.)

Key Reserve Players:

PG: R.J. Davis (So.), SG: Anthony Harris (RS So.), PF: Brady Manek (GS.), SF: Justin McKoy (Jr.), SG/SF: Puff Johnson (So.), SF: Dontrez Styles (Fr.), SG: D’Marco Dunn (Fr.)

Discussion:

The Hubert Davis era begins in Chapel Hill. The hall of fame career for Roy Williams comes to an end and it is now time for Davis to lead his alma mater.

Caleb Love is back for his sophomore season after a rough freshman year campaign. Love struggled with decision making throughout the entire year and was extremely inconsistent. He averaged 3.1 turnovers per game and shot just 31.6 percent from the field. Love will be the key for UNC’s success this year much like Jeremy Roach will be for Duke. On a positive note, he does return as their second leading scorer. Kerwin Walton was sort of the forgotten man in last year’s recruiting class, but he definitely surprised some people in a positive way, especially with his shooting. He started in 20 games and had a 42.0 percent clip from downtown. R.J. Davis started the season in the backcourt with Love, but Coach Williams elected to go with Walton for the remainder of the season. Expect Davis to come off the bench in 2021-2022, but he should still have a major role. Davis and Anthony Harris should be the first two guards off the bench. Hopefully we can get a fully healthy season of Harris.

Leaky Black, now a senior, will be a key leader for this team. His game never really took off like many had hoped it would at some point, but he will be a nice veteran to have in the lineup. He has started in 59 total games in the last two seasons. Hubert Davis was able to add three transfers this offseason, with the biggest get being Dawson Garcia from Marquette. The former McDonald’s All-American spent one season in Milwaukee before deciding to enter the transfer portal. He is a skilled lefty who can score in the post, can step out in midrange, and has an improving three-point stroke. He averaged 13.0 points and 6.6 rebounds as a freshman. Pretty crazy, but if you look at the 2020 class, five McDonald’s All Americans will have played in a Tar Heel uniform. UNC typically has two starting bigs and that will continue this year. Garcia will start next to Armando Bacot, who returns as the leading scorer and rebounder on last year’s team. He averaged 12.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per contest. He will be another important leader for Hubert Davis. Brady Manek and Justin McKoy are the two other transfers coming to Chapel Hill. Manek was a four-year starter at Oklahoma and shot over 35 percent from 3-point range in all four seasons. He is known as a big who can stretch out the defense and should be a nice complement to Garcia and Bacot in the big rotation. McKoy was a role player at UVA the past two seasons, but did see a bigger role as a sophomore, starting in four games.

Puff Johnson got kind of lost in the rotation last season, only averaging 4.1 minutes per game in 14 appearances. He does have a sweet lefty stroke, but will need to compete for minutes with the two incoming four-stars, D’Marco Dunn and Dontrez Styles.

It is not like Roy Williams left Hubert Davis nothing. This is a deep team with plenty of talent across the roster. Davis has enough to compete at the top of the ACC in year one.

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