With postseason play underway this week, the next calendar phase involves the transfer portal. Even though the UNC basketball program is still in action, head coach Hubert Davis discussed what the transfer portal means during his weekly radio show on Monday.
“You have to build a team through the transfer portal,” Davis said. “It’s very important, when you go into the transfer portal, to know what you want and what you need. Those are the two boxes that I check.”
The Tar Heels have dipped into the portal each of the last two offseasons and received commitments from some of the top big men in college basketball.
The 2021 offseason brought Oklahoma transfer Brady Manek, Virginia transfer Justin McKoy and Marquette transfer Dawson Garcia. This past offseason produced Northwestern transfer Pete Nance.
Outside of those players, North Carolina hasn’t been super involved with many targets like a handful of other programs around the country.
There’s a reason for that.
“We don’t call a kid, we don’t show any type of interest, until we clearly identify what we want and then what we need. So if we can find what we want, what we need, those are the guys that we go after,” Davis said. ” We’ll go into the transfer portal and find guys that fit Carolina.
Manek was instrumental in UNC’s national championship runner-up run last season. He averaged 15.1 points per game and shot 40.3% on 2.5 made 3s per game.
Nance has struggled this season to find the right fit within this group. He is averaging 10.1 points and shooting 32.7% from 3.
Garcia left the program midway through the season and transferred to Minnesota. McKoy has been a role player and deep reserve throughout his career at UNC.
“It’s just not a transfer portal to just get somebody in here. The beauty of Pete and Brady, they unpacked their bags, both feet were in, in terms of being a part of this program, this university, in this community. Those are the types of transfers that we’re looking for.”
The Tar Heels are definitely losing Nance and Leaky Black to graduation at the end of this season, but they could also lose Armando Bacot, Caleb Love and RJ Davis.
Right now, UNC has two commitments in the class of 2023, and neither are expected to be instant-impact players as freshmen.
So, that leaves Davis and the UNC staff to prioritize the transfer portal to replace potentially all five starters and the large majority of minutes this offseason.
There’s no doubt the Tar Heels need to land multiple impact transfers to bounce back from a disappointing 2022-23 season, regardless of who comes back.
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