College basketball season is so close, you can practically smell it every time you turn on the TV.
The North Carolina Tar Heels are once again a national championship contender, but this season with a different twist. What was a veteran-heavy team last year, headlined by Armando Bacot, Cormac Ryan and Harrison Ingram, is now a squad filled with young talent.
Freshman center James Brown is a key part of that youth, but the freshman headliners are Drake Powell and Ian Jackson, two five-star All-Americans in high school.
North Carolina hopes it’ll have Jackson and Powell for several years, but each are certainly talented enough to be one-and-dones. That’s why Hoops Hype’s Aggregate 2025 NBA Mock Draft lists Jackson and Powell as projected first-round picks.
Powell is mocked 13th, while Jackson is mocked 18th. Let’s see what Hoops Hype had to say about each of the Tar Heels’ freshmen stars.
“Powell is a solid two-way player with length and defensive upside, but he has to prove his shooting consistency as he continues to develop his perimeter shot,” Hoops Hype’s Cyro Asseo de Choch wrote.
“Jackson is an aggressive guard with intensity on both ends and a strong scoring ability, but he needs to shoot with more consistency to reach his full potential,” Asseo wrote.
Jackson is likely to start and Powell should, too, but North Carolina is so deep, there’s no telling who’ll start where and who comes off the bench. Jackson comes to Chapel Hill from New York, while Powell grew up 20 minutes from campus and is living his childhood dream.
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