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Leaky Black hinted in February he might take advantage of an NCAA rule not counting the 2020-21 season against any basketball players’ eligibility because of the effects of COVID-19, and Friday he made it official.
Multiple sources have told THI over the last five weeks this would indeed happen, because Black wasn’t ready to close out his career, and he wasn’t going anywhere else. So, Black will be back at North Carolina next season, giving Hubert Davis’ team perhaps the top defensive player in the nation.
Black is more than just a guy who shuts down opponents’ best players. He can rebound, pass, has improved his shooting, and is absolutely a hoops IQ guy. But his defense is elite, and it has become a weapon for the Tar Heels.
“Leaky, not only is he a great defender, he's a versatile defender,” Davis said the day before the Tar Heels defeated Duke in the Final Four in New Orleans. “I've said a number of times I wish, in certain situations, I wish I could have cut him in half or in three parts to be able to guard three different people.”
Davis and the Heels will have Black back for another season, and it will surely enhance the team’s chances at completing the run that fell just short when they lost, 72-69, to Kansas in the national championship game on April 4.
So, here are 5 Reasons Leaky Black made the right decision:
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He Wants A Title
Black and the Tar Heels were devastated when they came up short versus Kansas, but as this roster form for next winter takes shape, it is clear a redemption tour will soon commence, similar to the 2017 team’s after falling in the title game in 2016.
This club wants to get what they believe is rightfully theirs, to achieve what is expected at Carolina. And for Black, who suffered through the 14-19 campaign two years ago to last season’s 18-11 performance, which included the only time Roy Williams ever lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, cutting down the nets on the first Monday in April is something they must do for the sake of the program.
It is why they are there.
“North Carolina is the standard. We’re supposed to be here…,” Black said the day before the national championship game. “We always hear about past stories about players doing this, bringing this home, just big-time players doing stuff. I feel like we all want our little part in it.”
It's In His Soul
If you listened to the video UNC released of Black announcing his return, it was pretty clear the young man has North Carolina flowing though his veins. He also has a tattoo, to which someone very close to him told THI in March, “He can’t go anywhere else, he has a UNC tattoo. He’s UNC for life.”
So, Black is returning because he can. Why wouldn’t he? He basically rhetorically asked the same question in his video, and it makes complete sense. Attending school at UNC is something he has thoroughly enjoyed and wants to continue. Black will graduate this spring, so he gets a year of grad school under his belt. And he gets to play another year of Carolina basketball.
Black has been through some ups and downs at UNC, and has at times received harsh criticism from the fans. That goes with the territory of playing for a blue blood, though, and he understands that.
Kind Of Like A Redshirt Senior Year
Black suffered an ankle injury at Georgia Tech in January of his freshman season and didn’t play much when he returned in mid-March. Black totaled 237 minutes that season. Some freshmen would love to log that much playing time, but given how things unfolded, Black only had a partial freshman year.
That is why it isn’t such a stretch to consider next season like a redshirt senior year for Black. The 6-foot-8 native of Concord, NC, went on to play 951 minutes as a sophomore, 799 in a COVID-shortened season as a junior, and 1,129 this past season.
If part of the theme here in Black’s decision is to get better, why not call this a redshirt senior year for him? It makes a lot of sense, and will be used accordingly.
Still Room To Grow
Hubert Davis said in late December there is room for a player like Leaky Black on some NBA rosters. It struck many people as an interesting statement, because most think offense, offense, offense, and rebounding when they gauge whether or not a player can make it in the league. But Davis also says to make a roster a player “must be elite” at something, and Black is a top-shelf defensive player, and could guard guys at the next level.
“I think he takes the challenge to guard whomever he's assigned to,” Davis said. “And he feels very confident from a defensive standpoint that he can defend anybody out there on the floor.”
But a player must add something else to the floor, especially in today’s spread-out game. And if Black is to have a shot at getting to the league, adding to his offensive game would clearly enhance his odds. And there are several former Tar Heels we could use as similar examples here, but we will stick with two from different eras to make this point:
Dudley Bradley (1975-79) is widely regarded as the best defensive player ever at UNC, a distinction Black could corral toward the end of next season. As a junior, the 6-foot-6 small forward averaged 5.6 points but as a senior he was at 9.2 points per game. He played a bit more, but also excelled at turning his own defense into his own offense, as his steals per game went from 2.0 to 3.3.
Theo Pinson, who was also 6-foot-6 and played from 2014-18, went from 6.1 points to 10.3 and increased his assists from 3.7 to 5.1. Pinson even improved his shooting from 38.1 percent to 47.3 percent.
Bradley played nine years in the NBA never averaging more than 8.4 points per game, but nine years is a nice career. Pinson is in his fourth season in the NBA. And while he has been on two-way contracts for much of his career, and according to hoopshype.com, Pinson has earned more than $2.9 million so far.
Black’s average this past season dropped to 4.9 points per game, but he wasn’t needed to shoot as much as the previous two seasons. His field goal percentage improved, however, from 36,7 percent to 46.6 percent overall, including from 22.2 percent to 33.3 percent from three-point range.
NIL
It isn’t only the bigger named college athletes that can and will benefit from NIL, especially at a program such as North Carolina. UNC basketball players are stars, pure and simple, and Black truly developed some star power with his more efficient offensive play and defensive greatness.
And now, with him deciding to return, and the overall NIL value of a bunch of guys that thrilled their massive fan base with a run to the national title game, and having a clear mission in winning it next season, Black will rightfully be able to cash in.
He could go overseas at the very least and make some solid cash. UNC guys always do. But why not stick around, check the above boxes, and make as much if not more than he would this season playing professionally somewhere?
Talk about a no-brainer.
Now, Black isn’t likely to make in the range of a million dollars over the next year like Armando Bacot will, or Caleb Love would if he chooses to return, but he will make a whole lot more money than most people reading this piece, and then some. And good for him.
