UNC Basketball: Rechon Black 2018-19 season in review

Our UNC Basketball player season in review for 2018-19 continues as we take a look at Rechon Black’s freshman campaign in Chapel Hill

Nassir Little |

Rechon “Leaky” Black was the first player to commit to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the 2018 recruiting class. Leaky pledged his verbal commitment to Roy Williams and the program back in January of 2016.

The 6-foot-8 small forward was a four-star recruit out of Concord, North Carolina and was considered a versatile player that should help UNC on the wing.

Black’s career at UNC has started off slow due to an injury but he has shown some promise in his first year.

Let’s take a look at Black’s year in review:

The good

Black began the year coming off the bench for the Tar Heels as the 7th or 8th man in the rotation depending on the situation. His game is very similar to that of former UNC standout Theo Pinson as he earned some comparisons to him early in the year.

When Black was on the court, he was effective for the most part. He averaged 10.3 minutes per game, which isn’t bad considering he was coming off the bench in a deep rotation. While Black wasn’t really a scorer when on the floor, he did shoot 46 percent from the field while averaging 2.5 points per game.

But Black’s impact was felt both defensively and in transition.

Black showed off his passing ability on the offensive end, making quick, crisp passes to set up his teammates. He was really good running the floor, something that is a bonus moving forward in UNC’s offense. The Tar Heels love to run in the open floor and Black is a key perimeter player that will be involved in that.

Defensively, you could see Black’s length give opponents problems. He wasn’t a shutdown defender but he didn’t look lost either. He seemed to pick things up right away and fit in on the defensive end.

Sound familiar? It sounds a lot like Pinson.

The bad

It’s tough to evaluate Black in a season where he missed the majority of the ACC regular season and saw limited time the rest of the way, including the NCAA Tournament.

Not that it is his fault at all but the bad will come in the form of the injury.

Black sprained his ankle late in the win over Georgia Tech on January 29th and didn’t see action again until March. The injury kept him out for about a month, derailing any progress he could have made in his freshman year.

If it wasn’t for the injury, Black would have played a bigger part for the Tar Heels in 2018-19.

There are times when this team may have needed a spark on the defensive end of the floor and Black may have been able to provide that. He also could have helped give some valuable rest to key starters on the perimeter.

Black essentially lost a chunk of his freshman year playing in the ACC and that experience could have helped him moving forward into his sophomore season. Still, even with that, there is a lot to like about his growth.

Best game

Black’s best game in his freshman year came early in the 116-67 blowout win over Elon in the second game of the season.

The freshman played 15 minutes, scoring 8 points, grabbing 6 rebounds and dishing out 5 assists.

It was early in his season but he looked calm and crisp, despite the level of competition he was facing in the game. This was a game that gave you a glimpse into what could be in the future for this talented wing.

What the future holds

I think the future will be bright for Black moving forward as a four-year player at UNC, similar to what Pinson did. If Black follows in the footsteps of Pinson’s career, UNC will have a very good player by the time he’s a junior.

Going into next season, Black could play a big role in the Tar Heels’ rotation. He’s a candidate to start depending on recruiting decisions, or at the very least see a significant uptick in his minutes off the bench.

If UNC does land Cole Anthony and senior Brandon Robinson starts, Black could move into that sixth man role. He’s a candidate to fill that void left by his fellow recruiting class signee Nassir Little.

I’d like to see Black work a little more on his offensive game this offseason. Working on that jumper and getting stronger, allowing him to get to the rim, will help his overall game and allow him to be a scoring threat.

Either way, expect to see the minutes increase for Black and if he puts in the work this offseason, he could be a big surprise.