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UNC Basketball: Tar Heel sharpshooter snubbed on list of top newcomers

By Blake Cockrum

CHAPEL HILL, NC - MARCH 6: A general view of the Duke Blue Devils versus the North Carolina Tar Heels during tip off on March 6, 2005 at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Tar Heels defeated the Blue Devils 75-73. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC - MARCH 6: A general view of the Duke Blue Devils versus the North Carolina Tar Heels during tip off on March 6, 2005 at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Tar Heels defeated the Blue Devils 75-73. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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A UNC basketball sharpshooter and likely starter was egregiously left off ESPN’s list of this season’s top newcomers. 

According to a list ranking the best freshmen and newcomers for the 2021-22 college basketball season, ESPN staff writer Jeff Borzello apparently didn’t feel like North Carolina’s Brady Manek deserved a spot among the top 97. That includes the 91 players that he ranked — a seemingly arbitrary number which indicates that his list wasn’t confined to any particular amount — and the half-dozen guys that he named in his “next six.”

That’s despite the fact that Manek, a four-year starter under Lon Kruger at the University of Oklahoma, averaged no less than 10.2 points and five rebounds per game in any of his four seasons as a Sooner. He also shot no worse than 35.8 percent from beyond the arc during that span, and knocked down a total of 235 three-pointers for the Sooners — fifth-most in program history.

Manek’s best all-around season in Norman came as a junior when he notched career-highs in points (14.4), rebounds (6.2), blocks (1.2), assists (0.9), free throw percentage (77.9) and minutes per game (30.5). Manek hopes to bring similar results to the Tar Heels in 2021, and has the kind of supporting cast that will likely enable him to do so. With returning center Armando Bacot back in the mix this season, and a group of capable perimeter shooters for the first time in a few years, Manek should thrive in his lone season with the Tar Heels.

But let the national media sleep on Manek, the same way they are with Bacot, and let him do his work this season without all the preseason hype and expectations. After all, preseason hype and expectations mean absolutely nothing; just ask the Duke Blue Devils.

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