UNC Basketball: Elite shooter transfers to Louisville, not North Carolina

The UNC basketball program would have benefitted from the addition of Miami transfer Matt Cross, but the elite shooter picked the Louisville Cardinals instead.

The Tar Heels shot just 31.7 percent from three-point range this season, highlighting their need for quality shooters on the perimeter.

Both Caleb Love and R.J. Davis were recruited as players with tremendous offensive skill set, including the ability to knock down a high percentage of their shots from beyond the arc. And while they may become prolific scorers in the future, their progression this season has been hindered greatly by inconsistency — likely a direct result of their youth and inexperience.

Fortunately for the Tar Heels, freshman shooting guard Kerwin Walton came to campus ready to play this season. A lesser-thought-of prospect than the other five players in his freshman class, Walton was just a 4-star recruit coming out of high school, ranked 130th in the class of 2020. But it’s Walton, and not any his highly-touted teammates, that has shot 41.5 percent from long-range in his maiden voyage with the Tar Heels.

Walton can’t do it by himself, though, and that’s been evidenced by his past seven games — a stretch in which the young sharpshooter has connected on just 31.1 percent of his shots from the perimeter. Much of that dip in efficiency is because opponents are keying on Walton, knowing that he is, at times, the Tar Heels’ only consistent threat from deep.

And that’s why Roy Williams, if he isn’t already, should be keeping an eye out this offseason for transfer players with a knack for hitting outside shots. They missed out on Wofford senior transfer Storm Murphy, who recently announced his decision to attend Virginia Tech for his final year of eligibility next season. But Murphy isn’t the only transfer that’ll be throwing up three-point shots against the Tar Heels next season.

On Tuesday, former Miami Hurricanes wing Matt Cross announced that he’ll be joining the Louisville Cardinals next season. In his freshman season with the Hurricanes, Cross got nine starts in 14 appearances, and averaged 6.9 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. And while that might not seem all that impressive, it was his shooting stroke that caught Louisville head coach Chris Mack’s eye.

Cross hit 40 percent (20-for-50) of his three-point attempts during the 2020-21 season, and 87.5 percent of his free throws — albeit a small sample size on the latter. He scored a career-high 16 points on two occasions this season, and in both games he hit four three-pointers. And not only does Cross have a nice shooting touch, he’s got great size at 6-feet-7-inches and 225 pounds.

The Tar Heels, to my knowledge, didn’t go after Cross. Perhaps they weren’t interested. Or maybe they weren’t even aware he was transferring. They are, after all, a bit busier right now than either the Hurricanes or the Cardinals, neither of which made it to this year’s NCAA Tournament.

But you’d think that a team that has struggled from three-point range as much as the Tar Heels have over the past two seasons would be looking for reinforcements in just about every direction. And particularly when it’s a player from their conference transferring to another program in their conference.

Check back with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the Tar Heels as they prepare for their Round of 64 matchup with Wisconsin, as well as everything UNC basketball.