UNC Basketball: Breaking down Tar Heels’ 2019-20 rotation
By Trevor Marks
Shooting Guard
Minutes Breakdown: Christian Keeling (28), Brandon Robinson (10), Andrew Platek (2)
As a junior for the Charleston Southern Buccaneers, Christian Keeling torched whatever Big South defense was tasked with containing him, posting impressive averages of 18.7 points (.465/.380/.778), 6.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.4 threes made per game.
He may be new to the program as a graduate transfer, and there’s certainly a talent gap between the Big South and Atlantic Coast Conference, a gap that he’ll certainly have to adjust to, but his collection of perimeter shooting and pull-up scoring — last year he ranked in the 87th percentile on dribble jumpers in the half court per Synergy (1.018 PPP on 110 possessions) — is too much to simply stick on the bench as a reserve.
I’m very much pro-Brandon Robinson and would love for the 6-foot-4 rising senior guard to finally secure a starting gig, but it seems like Keeling — who Robinson helped recruit to UNC in the first place by hosting the grad transfer’s visit to the university — will ultimately block Robinson from cementing a starting role.
He’ll unquestionably still receive a large minutes share off the bench for the Tar Heels, as he was one of the team’s more efficient players as a junior — drilling 46.0 percent of his three-pointers (19-of-35), sporting the second-highest true shooting percentage of the major rotation players (63.3%), and sporting the second-highest on-court offensive rating (129.1) on the entire team.
He may not have the honorable tag of “starter,” an unfortunate casualty of playing on such a deep, loaded team, but he should end up playing nearly 20 minutes a night anyway.
Andrew Platek only saw 3.7 minutes of action on a per-game basis last season, operating as a “break in case of fire” reserve and routine “clear the bench” option at the end of games. He’s slotted in here at about two minutes per game, with his role likely being the exact same — he’s not quite a rotation player, but he’s capable of coming in as a change-of-pace guard that can at least keep the offense moving and drill a three or two while he’s on the court.