Finding next Brady Manek? Five intriguing transfer portal targets for UNC basketball
Returning four starters from last season’s NCAA runners-up ensures North Carolina men’s basketball will be considered a favorite to win it all next season. Adding the right transfer could be the exclamation point.
Kerwin Walton’s last-minute entry into the transfer portal on Sunday freed up a scholarship for the Tar Heels to do some exploring. The biggest need on the roster is in the frontcourt, where the team looks to fill a big void left by Brady Manek.
Manek, a graduate transfer from Oklahoma, averaged 15.1 points per game and led the team in shooting (40%) from 3-point range. He was the prototypical stretch-4 that makes coach Hubert Davis’ offense run most efficiently.
Despite how easy Manek made it look at times, there just aren’t a lot of 6-foot-9 forwards available who can shoot that high a percentage from behind the arc.
Forward Armando Bacot, who tied the NCAA record for double-doubles in a season, will be a candidate and likely frontrunner for ACC Player of the Year next season. But he’s the only experienced big on the roster.
Dawson Garcia, a 6-foot-11 forward, stopped playing in January in order to return home to deal with family illnesses. Garcia transferred to play for his home-state Minnesota Gophers team.
Will Shaver, a 6-foot-10 freshman, enrolled in January but might not be ready to play a lot of minutes. Jalen Washington, a 6-foot-9 freshman, is highly skilled but coming off a knee injury. If healthy, he should be a factor in the rotation.
So where do the Heels go from here? Davis could take several approaches with the 13th scholarship.
He could stand pat with the current roster and save a scholarship for next season. That would mean Justin McKoy, Puff Johnson or Dontrez Styles would have to be prepared to take on a bigger role.
Davis could add the best available player from the portal regardless of position. They reportedly made contact with South Dakota State transfer Baylor Scheierman, a 6-foot-6 wing who shot 46% from 3-point range last season. Scheierman committed to Creighton on Tuesday.
Davis could add another big regardless of skill set, meaning he’d serve as Bacot’s backup instead of someone with strong perimeter shooting skills.
Or Davis could seek out another Manek and keep looking until he finds a big with perimeter shooting skills. A potential stumbling block for the Heels securing a player is that so many still have their names in for the NBA draft.
Here are five intriguing targets for UNC:
1. Pete Nance, 6-foot-10, Northwestern
Nance entered the portal as a potential graduate transfer and kept his name in the NBA draft. He’s not projected on any mock draft boards, but the question only Nance can answer is how bad he wants to begin a professional career. If he decides to stay in college, UNC would be a good fit considering he shot 45% from 3-point range and averaged 14.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game last season for the Wildcats.
2. Patrick Baldwin Jr., 6-foot-9, UW Milwaukee
Baldwin was No. 8 in the 247Sports composite rankings for the class of 2021, but he had a disappointing year playing for his father at Milwaukee. A left ankle injury that caused him to miss most of his senior year at high school also shut him down after just 11 games for the Panthers. Baldwin is still weighing his pro options and could still be a late first-round pick despite averaging just 12.1 points and shooting 26% from 3 last season. If he were surrounded by the offensive threats in Carolina’s lineup, chances are he’d show why he was ranked so high.
3. Matthew Mayer, 6-foot-9, Baylor
Carolina fans might remember Mayer’s foul-plagued effort in the Tar Heels’ NCAA second-round, overtime win over the Bears. He made two 3s and finished with 10 points before fouling out. Mayer, who is also a grad transfer, is a lifetime 34.5% shooter from 3-point range — including 39.5% on Baylor’s 2021 national title team. He averaged 9.8 points and 5.0 rebounds last season, but he’s another player who also entered the draft and could turn pro.
4. K.J. Williams, 6-foot-10, Murray State
Williams was named Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year after averaging 18 points and 8.4 rebounds for the Racers last season. He’s a big who can play inside-out, as evidenced by his career 34.7% 3-point shooting percentage. Williams could take the obvious path and follow his former Racers coach Matt McMahon to LSU.
5. Jaiden Delaire, 6-foot-9, Stanford
Delaire, who averaged 10.1 points and 4.1 rebounds last season, was a two-year starter and four-year player for the Cardinal. He can score off the bounce and shot 32.3% from 3-point range last season. He’s also has kept his name in the NBA draft.
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 5:40 AM with the headline "Finding next Brady Manek? Five intriguing transfer portal targets for UNC basketball."