UNC Basketball: The 15 Tar Heels opposing fans hated most
Brice Johnson
When a wiry 6-foot-9, 195-pound Brice Johnson committed to North Carolina in the fall of 2011, nobody knew what kind of dominant force he’d become in college basketball over the next few seasons. What they did know, was that every time he scored a bucket — particularly a dunk of just about any kind — he was going to let you know about it.
And maybe that’s what made opposing fans dislike him so much.
From the moment Johnson stepped on to the court, he had the energy and enthusiasm that he’d carry with him over the next four years in Chapel Hill. What he didn’t have, was just about every other part of his game that he developed over the course of his career. That, and the 30 or so pounds of muscle that he added to his once-lanky frame.
As a freshman for the Tar Heels, Johnson played a modest 10.6 minutes per game on a North Carolina team that won 25 games and finished third in the ACC. Johnson often looked lost on the court that season, and couldn’t hit a free throw to save his life. But that confidence and excitement never left him, even when he’d gotten on the final nerve of the Hall-of-Fame head coach who was yelling at him from the bench.
Fast forward three seasons, though, and Johnson was nearly unrecognizable from the raw, unpolished played who’d strolled into Chapel Hill in the summer of 2012. A member of the ACC’s all-conference third team as a junior — averaging 12.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game — Johnson had just begun to scratch the surface. His senior season is the one that would cement him as one of the best big men at North Carolina in the Roy Williams era.
Playing 28 minutes per game on a 33-win UNC squad, a senior Johnson that stood 6-feet-10-inches tall and weighed nearly 230 pounds, averaged 18.2 points and 10.4 rebounds, and shot nearly 62 percent from the floor. A 57.7 percent free throw shooter as a freshman, Johnson hit over 79 percent of his attempts from the charity stripe in his final collegiate season. He added career-highs in assists (1.5), blocks (1.5) and steals (1.1), and was, simply put, one of the most explosive, dominant players in college basketball during the 2015-16 season.
Johnson’s signature performance that season was a 39-point, 23-rebound game against Florida State in Tallahassee. He was virtually unstoppable that night, hitting 14 of his 16 shots from the floor, and getting to the free throw line 16 times, where he converted 11. He added three blocks, three steals and one assist in a game-high 37 minutes of play.
Johnson would go on to earn first team All-ACC and first team All-American honors that season, and helped lead the Tar Heels to the 2016 NCAA Championship. The Tar Heels, of course, fell to the Villanova Wildcats on a last-second Kris Jenkins three-pointer, but it didn’t change the outstanding performance that Johnson put together for the UNC basketball program that season.
However great he was in college, Johnson’s NBA career quickly flamed out. That was aided by some untimely injuries to begin his career with the Los Angeles Clippers, who drafted him 25th overall in the 2016 NBA Draft. He’s currently playing for Indios de Mayaguez of the Baloncesto Superior Naciaonal in Puerto Rico.
Regardless, it’s safe to say that Johnson outperformed his ranking coming out of high school nearly a decade ago. The Edisto High School senior was the No. 45 prospect in the nation according to the 247Sports Composite, which tabbed him as the 13th-best power forward in the class.