North Carolina has yet to officially land its first incoming transfer addition since naming Michael Malone as the new head coach in Chapel Hill, but the Tar Heels are trending in the right direction for a few players, including former Utah guard Terrence Brown. Brown is reportedly visiting Chapel Hill on Monday, so Malone will have his best chance to close the deal.
The 6-foot-3 junior guard started his career at Farleigh Dickinson before transferring to the Utes for his junior year. Last season, he averaged 19.9 points and 3.8 assists per game, and now he’s looking to spend his final year of eligibility at a powerhouse program, with Kansas and Kentucky also in the mix with UNC.
Brown is also reportedly planning a visit to Kansas sometime this week, but Malone could lock him in before that ever happens. And he may need to because Brown’s aggressive play style is something the Heels were sorely lacking in the back court this year.
Utah transfer Terrence Brown visiting UNC on Monday with Kansas lurking
While Brown was a high-volume scorer at both FDU and Utah, he has never been a particularly efficient one. He lacks confidence in his three-point shot, which he hits at about 33 percent, but on just over three attempts per game, and that feeds into a bad habit of taking inefficient mid-range jumpers and difficult shots from the paint.
His 48.6 effective field goal percentage was 45th percentile in college basketball (per CBBanalytics.com), and with a 99th percentile usage rate, it’s not terribly surprising that Utah went 10-22. However, that high usage rate and propensity to take difficult shots can also be a product of playing on a bad team. With interest from Kansas, Kentucky, and UNC, along with Missouri, it appears that Brown intends to find out how his game fits in a winning environment.
That’s a good move for Brown, and adding him, even with efficiency concerns, would be a good move for UNC. Much of the roster will be different from last season, so it’s hard to take much from that and apply it going forward. Regardless, UNC desperately needs somebody in the backcourt who can get downhill and put pressure on the rim.
The Tar Heels need Brown’s rim pressure, but will he fit with Dylan Mingo?
Last season, that player was Seth Trimble, but the rest of the Heels’ guards, Kyan Evans, Derek Dixon, and Luka Bogovac, played perimeter-centric games. Particularly with a stretch-five like Henri Veesaar, who is lethal as a pick-and-pop three-point shooter, having a guard who can get downhill, or at least presents the threat, is vital. Though he’s not much of a willing shooter, Brown can do that at a high level.
Of Brown’s 20 points a night, 10 came from the paint, an 81st percentile points in the paint rate, which is rare for a guard. For comparison, 11.2 percent of Derek Dixon’s points came in the paint, 19.8 percent of Evans’s, and 54.2 percent of Trimble’s.
Brown didn’t finish quite as well around the rim as Trimble, shooting 57.5 percent to Trimble’s 70.1 percent finishing rate. However, that 57.5 percent is much better than Dixon’s 23.8 percent and Evans’ 45.0 percent.
Brown isn’t a perfect player, but he’s a perfect fit to fill one of North Carolina’s biggest needs. How he’ll fit next to five-star recruit Dylan Mingo, who has remained committed to the Heels, is a question, though. Mingo’s best ability is getting downhill, and like Brown, he’s not a terribly reliable outside shooter.
If Malone constructs a Mingo-Brown backcourt, he’ll need to fit plenty of shooting around it, but after last season, I’m sure most UNC fans would take multiple guards who aggressively attack the rim over two in Dixon and Evans, who never did.