Ebuka Okorie
Stanford's freshman point guard was peerless on the court against North Carolina. I say this despite Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar having good games, production-wise. What UNC's twin towers couldn't give the Tar Heels was control. Okorie was able to do whatever he wanted, and he had Stanford absolutely humming.
His 36 points (a Stanford freshman scoring record) and nine assists are eye-catching stats, but the manner in which Okorie compiled them is even more impressive. He looked like he was ice skating on the court, in complete control of his drive, able to hold off UNC defenders with his off-hand, getting them on his back hip, and slipping into crevices between bigs to score at the rim. His jump shot was on (3-for-5 from three), but even more impressive was his distribution.
Since Okorie established himself as a scoring threat, he started attracting double-teams. Veesaar got dragged into deep water on a switch, and Seth Trimble followed to presumably trap, but did such a poor job that both he and Veesaar were behind Okorie when he eventually drove to the rim and scored. This gravity opened up excellent passing lanes, and Okorie was hitting shooters in the bread basket for catch-and-shoot threes. Stanford collectively shot 16-for-28 from three, and the absolute back-breaking percentage and the difference in the game.
It is imperative that Tar Heel Nation answers the call when NIL fundraising comes around for next season. A bag big enough to crush a house needs to be dropped on Okorie to bring him to Chapel Hill. UNC can't survive another season with Kyan Evans at the helm.