North Carolina Basketball: 2017-18 Grades for the Tar Heels

The 2017-18 North Carolina wasn’t as successful as the previous season, but there was still plenty of great talent that performed. So how did each individual player stack up?

The 2017-18 North Carolina Tar Heels men’s basketball team had a lot of live up to. They were coming off back-to-back National Championship trips. They were on the losing end of a game-winning shot two seasons ago. The Tar Heels finally won the whole thing last year. The expectations were still high, but not so much Championship or bust.

North Carolina was returning the 2017 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Joel Berry proved to be a big-time scorer and leader last season and this was his farewell tour. He was joined by another senior who seemed to have been at North Carolina for many years. Theo Pinson is the do it all forward UNC normally has.

Luke Maye was the big breakout star in the 2017 NCAA Tournament and the ceiling was high for him. He was joined by a great group of juniors. Kenny Williams was ready to break out and join the starting five. Cameron Johnson was a grad transfer from Pitt who had already established himself as a good scorer in a rotation.

UNC knew they were going to great, steady minutes from those five. The rest was going to be a guessing game with young players. There were two big guys who had huge shoes to fill. Garrison Brooks actually started the first half of the season. He didn’t quite live up to what it means to play in the paint for North Carolina so Johnson took his spot. Sterling Manley basically had the same exact season.

Andrew Platek and Jalek Felton were highly recruited freshmen guards. Platek played in every game, but didn’t do anything flashy all season. Felton only played in 22 games and left the program.

Roy Williams used a lot of games throughout the season. 11 guys normally saw the court in one game. A lot of freshmen and sophomores were getting jumbled and no one outside the top seven really emerged. UNC did however have enough confidence and stability with what they were doing because it landed them a two seed in the NCAA Tournament.

I’m going to throw those 11 names at you in the piece. Felton is going to be excluded. The rest will have a few words talked about.