The amount of excitement around the Tar Heel basketball program is as high as it has been in a few years and that excitement grew on Friday afternoon.
Just a short time ago, senior wing Leaky Black announced via his social media that he was returning for his extra year of eligibility that was awarded due to COVID. He will return to Carolina off of his best season in a Tar Heel uniform where he 4.9 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game and 2.7 assists per game. While those might not be the best numbers of his career, his value was seen on the defensive end of the floor, where he posted a 103.0 defensive rating and a 1.4 defensive win share, the best numbers of his career. Down the stretch of the season, Black slowed down guys like Duke’s A.J. Griffin, Virginia’s Kihei Clark, Marquette’s Justin Lewis and Saint Peter’s Doug Edert, holding them to some of their lowest scoring outputs of the season.
Black’s return gives the Tar Heels their best defender back for a 2022-23 season that is more and more like it will be a season where the team will make another run at redemption, similar to the one that they did back in 2016. The team is now waiting on official decisions from Caleb Love and R.J. Davis, although, it seems like Davis might not be viewed as a player that does not need to confirm his decision as the others do. Regardless, with Bacot and Black back, Tar Heel fans' excitement is growing more and more palpable.
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