UNC Basketball: Where ESPN ranks Tar Heel transfer Brady Manek
Where ESPN ranks UNC basketball forward Brady Manek among 2020-21 transfers
Former Oklahoma Sooners standout Brady Manek will be the lone member of the Tar Heels’ starting lineup in 2020-21 that wasn’t there a season ago. He’s only been with the team since mid-April, having committed to North Carolina just a week-and-a-half after the Hubert Davis hiring. He helps fill a need for the Tar Heels after they lost Garrison Brooks, Sterling Manley and Walker Kessler to transfer, as well as Day’Ron Sharpe to the NBA Draft.
Manek brings with him one year of eligibility — that thanks to the NCAA granting an additional year of eligibility to all student-athletes due to the Covid-19 pandemic that affected so much of the 2020-21 season — and an uncanny ability to knock down shots from the perimeter. In his 122 games with the Sooners, 111 of which he started, Manek knocked down 235 three-pointers.
Manek scored 12 points per game in four seasons with the Sooners, and pulled down at least five rebounds a game each of those seasons. He has also improved as a free throw shooter since connecting on just 60 percent of his attempts at the charity stripe as a freshman. He’s hit no less than 76.4 percent of his free throws in any of the last three seasons.
Manek’s inclusion on the team, and in the starting lineup, in particular, should be a welcomed sight for Tar Heel fans. He’s a versatile player with the ability to spread out the floor on offense, and guard multiple positions on defense. ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, however, may not value Manek’s role on the Tar Heels as much as we do. The ESPN staff writer ranks Manek just 51st among college basketball transfers this season. He had this to say in a recent piece:
"“Manek started at least 20 games in all four of his seasons at OU, averaging double-figures and shooting better than 35% from 3 in each. It’s hard to find that sort of size and shooting ability on the transfer market from a Power 5 school, but the Tar Heels did.”"
The 6-foot-9, 231-pound big man will suit up for the Tar Heels for just one season, but his size and shot-making ability could be invaluable in that time. After all, the Tar Heels went from being arguably the biggest team in the nation to one that’s now severely lacking size, and they were already a below average three-point shooting team that struggled to put points on the board.
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