WILMINGTON, NC – While North Carolina may not get any votes as the best team in the nation right now as it continues to develop individually and as a unit, the Tar Heels certainly may get the nod as the best dressed team.
Sitting in suits on the bench Friday night in Wilmington were senior wing Brandon Robinson, junior big man Sterling Manley and freshmen guards Anthony Harris and Jeremiah Francis. Each is injured and was unavailable for the Tar Heels’ 78-62 victory over UNC-Wilmington.
In addition, freshman forward Armando Bacot suffered a concussion after playing just 2:41 and missed the rest of the game. The Heels were seriously depleted.
Five of UNC’s 13 scholarship players were banged up and not available, adding to what is already a challenging situation for UNC Coach Roy Williams. Needless to say, the Tar Heels need to get healthy, but timing for their returns vary, Williams said following the game.
First up will be Robinson, the 6-foot-4 veteran who started UNC’s exhibition game versus Winston-Salem State but injured his ankle five minutes in. Robinson scored 119 points last season averaging around 12 minutes a game in ACC play. He also shot 46 percent (23-for-50) from 3-point range and is one of the team’s leaders, so he’s needed for plenty of reasons. He is getting close, however.
“He got off that cute little scooter pretty quick, got out of the boot (Friday) and we’re thinking probably around Nassau (Bahamas) time but hopefully (Sometime) earlier,” Williams said, following the win in Wilmington. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”
The Tar Heels plarticipate in the Battle For Atlantis in the Bahamas beginning Nov. 27. They will play three games in the event against high-major competion, opening up versus Alabama.
UNC hasn’t released any information about Bacot, but Williams said Friday night they thought it was a concussion, so he’s likely in the concussion protocol and should be ready to go fairly soon.
The other three are a different story.
Manley played 18 games last season missing most of ACC play with a mysterious knee injury the program describes as “soreness” in his left knee. It healed enough he was cleared to play the last few conference games and in the postseason, though he totaled just nine minutes.
The 6-foot-11 junior from Pickerington, OH, underwent knee surgery last spring and is slowly working his way back, but Williams has said several times over the last five weeks he has no idea when Manley will be back. If healthy, Manley would be a valuable part of Carolina’s rotation.
Francis, who is also from Pickerington, suffered a knee injury in November of 2017 forcing him to miss his entire junior season, but the pain returned the following summer necessitating another surgery, which caused the point guard to also miss his senior campaign.
And then there’s Harris, a combo guard from Fairfax, VA, who was originally part of Virginia Tech's recruiting class but re-opened his recruitment when Buzz Williams left for Texas A&M. He chose the Tar Heels over Michigan in May.
Last December, however, Harris suffered a torn left ACL and missed the rest of his senior season. He has practiced some but hasn’t been cleared for much and there’s no time table for his return, either, though Williams hinted that Harris could be back before Manley and Francis.
“We’d like to get some of those other guys back,” he said. “I think, more than likely, Anthony Harris will be the first one of those guys to get back for us. He’s a freshman, so we don’t know what he’s going to do, but we’d like to get him back as soon as soon as we can, too.”
Carolina will get healthier than it was in defeating the Seahawks, and really, given that once Bacot went down the Heels played a six-man rotation, with a few minutes from forward Brandon Huffman, adding any player that can help will be an enormous boost for Williams’ club.
“They don’t let us go out and draft and there’s no list we can take anybody off a waiver list, it’s who we have,” the coach said.
Hence, having fewer players wearing fancy suits on the bench is of paramount importance.
