UNC Basketball: Midseason player grades for 2019-20 Tar Heels

Ball Handlers

Cole Anthony 

Stats (9 GP): 19.1 ppg (.368/.355/.679), 6.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.9 spg, 0.4 bpg

This isn’t what we all expected after his 34-11-5 debut against Notre Dame, right? Coming into the season as the top freshman point guard and a contender for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, Anthony’s very first college game has, thus far, been his best. Since then, he’s been in an uncharacteristic cold streak, with a dominant high school scorer (who finished with ease and shot above 36% from three and 86% from the line as a senior) somehow failing to shoot 40% on twos and 70% from the line.

His situation at UNC is far from ideal: the two-post system clogs up driving lanes, the lack of shooters allows defenses to focus solely on him, and the team’s chemistry has been a total mess. He himself hasn’t been perfect, but the flashes of tough shot-making, crafty passing, and outlier defensive event creation are still there. It’s hard to say how much of this is mental (decision-making), situational (team fit), or physical (injuries, be it a January 2019 ankle sprain or the recent meniscus tear at Battle4Atlantis), which is what makes him a tricky eval.

He’s at the four-week mark of his initial 4-to-6 week recovery timeline, so his return is imminent. How he returns will determine how high he goes in this June’s draft and whether UNC can reach the postseason — but for now, given how much we know and don’t know, his grade is incomplete.

Grade: Incomplete

Jeremiah Francis 

Stats (7 GP): 5.9 ppg (.217/.286/.708), 1.7 rpg, 3.0 apg, 0.9 spg

Giving Francis an ‘A’ for simply returning from consecutive lost years due to lingering knee issues and making an immediate impact is something I and plenty of UNC fans would like to do. He’s been getting the offense into its secondary sets quickly, he pushes in transition, he’s made some beautiful passes with his probing dribble-drive game, and he’s given the team hope at point guard while Anthony has been out. But his overall impact stats — an on-court ORTG of 77.9, a negative box plus/minus of -6.0 (per BartTorvik) which is the worst mark on the team, and an anemic 35.7 true-shooting percentage — indicate that he still isn’t all the way back. He hasn’t been that bad on offense, but his legs just aren’t back yet. Give him time.

Grade: C

KJ Smith 

Stats (15 GP): 0.9 ppg (.222/.100/.833), 0.5 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.4 spg

With Anthony out of the lineup, the former Pacific transfer found himself suddenly thrust into the lineup in a meaningful way — only to lose his spot in a couple of games following Francis’ return. Smith is capable of making basic entry passes to Carolina’s bigs, but outside of that, he offers very little.

Grade: D+