UNC Basketball: Garrison Brooks named to Wooden Top 25

UNC Basketball senior Garrison Brooks has been named to the Wooden Midseason Top 25 list this week despite his struggles this season

This season hasn’t gone as the UNC Basketball team has planned as they sit at 2-2 early on in Atlantic Coast Conference play. But after starting off at 0-2, they have rebounded with two nail-biting wins over Notre Dame and Miami to get to .500. 

It also hasn’t been the start that the conference preseason player of the year, Garrison Brooks, has hoped for.

Through the first 11 games of the season Brooks is averaging 10.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game while shooting 44.4 percent from the field. Those aren’t awful numbers but after Brooks took a big step in his junior season, UNC fans were expecting more from the senior.

On Wednesday, Brooks may have received a boost of confidence. The Wooden Award Top 25 midseason list was released and surprising to some, Brooks was one of the 25 players that made the list which honors the top college basketball player:

The list is full of the top players in the country and is headlined by three Gonzaga players as the Zags are off to a dominant start this season.

Brooks has been a part of UNC’s rotation of big men this season including freshmen Day’Ron Sharpe and Walker Kessler as well as sophomore Armando Bacot. But still, Brooks has received a lot of minutes and just hasn’t produced at the levels you’d like to see him at this year. He was even benched for Sharpe this season and admitted that he wasn’t playing well enough.

If UNC wants to turn things around this year, Brooks is going to have to elevate his play to a new level.

The Wooden Award List will be cut down to finalists in March before the winner is announced during the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

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