University of North Carolina senior forward Brice Johnson is a first-team All-America by the United States Basketball Writers Association, an honor which qualifies Johnson to have his jersey number ‘11’ raised to the rafters in the Dean E. Smith Center.

Johnson leads Carolina in scoring (16.6 points per game), rebounding (10.6 per game), field goal percentage (.614) and blocked shots (43). The Orangeburg, S.C., native leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in double-doubles (20) and field goal shooting and is second in the conference in rebounding.

He was a unanimous selection to both the media and coaches’ All-ACC teams.

Johnson helped lead the Tar Heels to the ACC regular-season title and the ACC Tournament championship, earning first-team All-Tournament honors for the second year in a row. Carolina is 28-6 overall and the No. 1 seed in the NCAA East Regional and will play either Fairleigh Dickinson or Florida Gulf Coast University on Thursday at 7:20 p.m. in Raleigh.

Marcus Paige earned second-team All-America honors from the Sporting News in 2014 to qualify to have his number ‘5’ honored. They will become the 50th and 51st Tar Heel players in the rafters. Eight of the jersey numbers are retired.

The criteria for honoring a men’s basketball player’s jersey at Carolina includes: first- or second-team All-America (by a team that the NCAA uses to determine consensus All-America honors, currently the Associated Press, NABC, USBWA and the Sporting News); ACC Player of the Year; Most Valuable Player of NCAA Tournament winning team; Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Final Four; or Olympic gold medalist.

The 2015-16 USBWA All-America first team includes:

Brice Johnson, North Carolina

Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia

Buddy Hield, Oklahoma

Ben Simmons, LSU

Denzel Valentine, Michigan State

- UNC Communications