Keeping It Heel
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UNC Basketball: Five Tar Heels who outplayed their recruiting ranking

By Blake Cockrum

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - NOVEMBER 16: The North Carolina Tar Heels huddle before their game against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at the Dean Smith Center on November 16, 2018 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - NOVEMBER 16: The North Carolina Tar Heels huddle before their game against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at the Dean Smith Center on November 16, 2018 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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UNC Basketball
NEWARK, NJ – DECEMBER 10: Payton Banks #0 of the Penn State Nittany Lions drives past Cameron Johnson #23 of the Pittsburgh Panthers during the second half of a college basketball game at Prudential Center on December 10, 2016 in Newark, New Jersey. Pitt defeated Penn State 81-73. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

Cameron Johnson

Sometimes a high school prospect is marginally misranked, whether it be too high or too low, and that can easily happen for a number of reasons. But there are other occasions, however, when the discrepancy between a player’s ranking and eventual on-court production is so far off that it’s perplexing.

That was the case with Cameron Johnson, the Pittsburgh Panther turned North Caroling Tar Heel who was ranked 224th in the nation coming out of high school in 2014. Under-recruited and undervalued for his ability to shoot the basketball, Johnson didn’t receive the scholarship offers from big-name schools that a player of his caliber should.

After committing to Jamie Dixon and the Pittsburgh Panthers, Johnson suffered a season-ending injury that forced him to redshirt his first year of college. Johnson started just one game the following season, averaging 4.8 points and 1.8 rebounds on a 21-win Panthers squad. He converted better than 37 percent of his three-point attempts, though, despite getting just 12 minutes per game off the Pittsburgh bench.

Following the departure of head coach Jamie Dixon — who left Pittsburgh for the same position at TCU — Johnson really came into his own as a sophomore, averaging 11.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists in a career-high 33.3 minutes per game. He started each of the team’s 33 games, but the Panthers went just 16-17 in Kevin Stallings’ first season as head coach.

It was upon the completion of the Panthers’ sub-.500 season that Johnson decided to leave the school as a graduate transfer. Johnson took official visits to Arizona, Kentucky, Ohio State, Oregon and UCLA, but ultimately chose North Carolina to spend his final two seasons of college eligibility.

In two seasons with the Tar Heels, Johnson averaged 15 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. He played nearly 30 minutes per game during that span, and started 56 of the Tar Heels’ 62 games from 2017 to 2019. His time at North Carolina was highlighted by the 16.9 points he averaged as a senior on 50.6 percent shooting and 45.7 percent three-point accuracy. He was named first team All-ACC for his efforts, and was subsequently selected with the 11th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

That’s pretty good for a guy ranked 224th in the nation just a handful of years ago.

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