UNC Basketball: Breaking down Tar Heels 2019 recruiting class

Jeremiah Francis — Pickerington, OH

PG | 6-foot-3 | 190 lbs | No. 172 overall 

Jeremiah Francis, a stocky 6-foot-3 guard from Pickerington, Ohio and a former high school teammate of current UNC center Sterling Manley at Pickerington Central, was the first recruit from the class of 2019 to commit to joining the program, voicing his intentions in August of 2017.

At the time, the big-bodied point guard was hovering in the 50’s of the 247 Sports Composite, firmly a four-star prospect, with power conference programs such as Ohio State, Florida State, and Missouri all vying for the rising junior’s services. By and large, he was viewed as an eventual NCAA starting point guard — and possible NBA Draft-hopeful — due to his poised cadence, strong frame, and soft jumper that extended out beyond the arc.

But then he experienced a non-contact injury to his left knee just before his junior season was set to begin, requiring surgery and months of recovery that forced him to sit on the sidelines for several months. And then, months later, Francis felt discomfort and pain in his surgically repaired knee, and ultimately underwent a microfracture surgery with the hopes of aiding cartilage recovery and repair.

According to a 2018 report from Malika Andrews of the Chicago Tribune, such an operation is one that is not without significant risk. The operation, which “involves drilling four small holes through articular cartilage of the knee and into the subchondral bone” (the layer of bone just below the cartilage in a joint), has a goal of spurring stem-cell growth and eventually the regrowth of new “cartilage-like tissue.”

However, according to one 2018 study, the failure rate of such an operation was alarmingly high, with NBA players experiencing future pain, discomfort, instability, and other issues years after the surgery, in some cases leading to additional operations (such as Amar’e Stoudemire) or shortened careers. As such, medical professionals have shifted toward other alternatives, making the operation a rarity — only five players have undergone microfracture surgery since 2010.

For Francis, history isn’t on his side, but that won’t stop him from working diligently to return to full health and fight to buck such a gloomy trend.

A below-the-rim athlete as a high school freshman and sophomore, his string of surgeries shouldn’t impact his playstyle all that much, although regaining comfort will certainly be his biggest challenge, an expected one after not playing for two years.

It’s wholly possible that Jeremiah Francis doesn’t play a minute of Tar Heel basketball this upcoming season, instead using it as a medical redshirt year. Such an ultimatum will be up to him, his family, the coaching staff, and the Chapel Hill medical professionals that have been aiding him throughout the past two years.

Whenever he returns to full health and returns to the court, he figures to be a solid backup option at point, a natural fit in Roy Williams’ offensive system.