UNC Women’s Basketball 2022-2023 Player Preview: Paulina Paris

We begin our player previews for the UNC Women’s basketball team with freshman guard Paulina Paris.

Paulina Paris is a 5-foot-9 freshman guard from Congers, New York. She played for Saddle River Day School, where she was named to the 2022 Jordan Brand Classic Girls National Team. She comes to the UNC basketball program after being ranked 27th overall in the class of 2022.  She is listed as seventh at her position by espnW HoopGurlz.

2021-22 Season In Review

During her senior year at Saddle River Day School, she scored a game-high 34 points to lead her team to the 2022 county championship. T

Paris also averaged 24.4 points per game as a junior at Saddle River Day School.

During her freshman and sophomore years, Paris played for Albertus Magnus High School in Bardonia, New York. She also competed in track in middle school and placed first in the country in the 100 meters.

After two seasons at Albertus Magnus, Paris took her talents to Saddle River Day High School in New Jersey, where she starred for a Rebels team that was one of the best in the state over the two-year span.

Paris averaged 24.4 points per game as a junior and followed it up with a monster senior season en route to leading the Rebels to a county championship. In the title game, Paris scored a game-high 34 points.

Although her team finished as the runner-up in the state championship, she put together strong playoff performances, as she had 37 points in the state semifinal and 23 points in the title  game.

Paris announced her commitment on her Twitter account on October 30, 2021.

Her father, Bryan Paris played basketball at the University of Turabo. He also played professionally in Puerto Rico. Paris told Michael Koh of Chapelboro.com:

"“I was able to meet the girls on the team, and the girls are what really sold it for me,” Paris said. “Obviously the coaches are great, but I didn’t want to go to a team where I didn’t get along with the girls.“And also, I could tell they were gonna be a winning program because of the way [Banghart] coaches the team, and just by the way the girls act. So that was mostly the reason why I came here.”"

What to Expect in 2022-2023

Paris is the only member of the 2022-2023 freshman recruiting class. It is hard to know at this point how much time she will have, particularly early in the season. She can clearly score the ball but will need to earn minutes behind a number of upperclassman guards, including junior Deja Kelly.

Bold Prediction

As stated, Paris can really score the basketball and could be a bright spot off of the bench. There are a number of players ahead of her but the hope is that Coach Banghart can find minutes for Paris to grow into a position as a future leader for the team.

Check back with Keeping It Heel for the rest of our player preview series, and everything on the UNC basketball program.