UNC Basketball: Five Tar Heels who outplayed their recruiting ranking

Brice Johnson

Brice Johnson got off to a slow start at the University of North Carolina. There’s no doubt about that. But to think that a dozen other players in the class of 2012 were ranked higher than Johnson is baffling.

Sure, the 6-foot-9, 195 pound power forward arrived in Chapel Hill as a raw, unrefined player that needed to harness both his skill and his focus, but he did possess undeniable athleticism and an effective offensive game. He also ran the floor incredibly well for a player at his position, and was a difference-maker on the defensive side of the ball.

Those traits carried over to Johnson’s college career, but not necessarily during his freshman season. There were instances in which Johnson looked lost on the court, and his effort was sometimes in question. Roy Williams has stated that he may have been harder on Johnson than any other player that he’s coached, but the three-time national title-winning coach apparently knew which buttons to press.

By year two at North Carolina, Johnson had nearly doubled his output in both points and rebounds. He displayed marked improvement in his shooting percentages from both the floor and the free throw line, and got twice as much playing time as he did the prior season. Johnson didn’t have a perfect season by any means, but you could see the potential that Williams and the UNC coaching staff saw all along.

Johnson’s junior season is when things really began to come together for him. He started 37 of the Tar Heels’ 38 games, and played nearly 25 minutes per contest. He averaged 12.9 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting better than 56 percent from the floor. Just as he’d done the season before, Johnson substantially improved his efficiency as a free throw shooter — going from 62.2 percent as a sophomore, to 67.8 percent as a junior. By the end of his penultimate season at North Carolina, anticipation and expectations for Johnson’s senior season were growing.

And deservedly so, as Johnson put together one of the best seasons for a UNC front court player during Roy Williams’ 16-year tenure at North Carolina. Johnson, who had grown to 6-feet-10-inches tall and weighed over 30 pounds more than he did in year one with the Tar Heels, averaged 18.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.1 steals per game. His field goal percentage ballooned to 62 percent, while increasing his free throw percentage (79.4) for the fourth consecutive season.

Johnson was named first team All-ACC and first team All-American in 2016, and was a key factor in the Tar Heels’ NCAA Tournament run to the National Championship game. Despite losing to Villanova in the closing seconds of the game, Johnson left his mark on the North Carolina basketball program.

Johnson joined the Tar Heels as the No. 45 prospect in his class, and 13th among players at the power forward position, but you’d be hard-pressed to find even one that put together as impressive of a college career as he did.