UNC Basketball: 2019-20 Career Stats in Review - Points

A look back at career points scored for the 2019-20 UNC Basketball roster following the season.

In the history of North Carolina basketball, 573 different young men have scored at least one point during their career. That list starts at the top with Tyler Hansbrough (2872 points), Phil Ford (2290), Sam Perkins (2145), and Lennie Rosenbluth (2047) and works its way all the way down to the 11 players who scored exactly one point (including current Tar Heel Ryan McAdoo).

Sure, we all know the names at the top better, but every name on this list is part of Carolina history. Every name on this list contributed at least one point to the scoreboard.

The 2019-20 team was no exception. While they struggled to score quite as many points as most Tar Heel teams do, seven players added their name to the career scoring list for the first time while nine moved further up the list from where they were a year ago.

Earlier in the summer, I looked at 10 different single-season statistical categories from the 2019-20 season and how they compared to previous years. Now it’s time to turn our attention to those same 10 categories in terms of career stats.

We’ll start with the most basic statistical category: career points. 

Garrison Brooks is the only player to finish the year ranked in the top-100 all-time. He began the season in 147th place with 452 points, tied with Pete Mullis who played from 1935-38.

As you can see, Cole Anthony climbed all the way up to 157th place on the career scoring list in just one season. His 407 career points is a solid number for a freshman. Obviously that number would have been a good deal higher if he hadn’t missed so much time. Anthony missed 11 games and averaged 18.5 points per game. That means, assuming his averaged stayed where it was, Anthony would have scored around 204 more points if he played the whole season. A total of 611 career points still wouldn’t have put him in the top 100 all-time, but it would have moved him into 119th, just ahead of Bob McAdoo’s 604 points. For reference, 611 points would have been 32nd all-time for a single season.

Brandon Robinson finished off his Tar Heel career with 532 points, 133rd all-time in scoring. Similar to Anthony, Robinson missed nine games, which cost him a good number of points in what was his most prolific offensive season for the Tar Heels. In his first three years, he never averaged more than 3.4 points a game, but also played at least 10 more games every season than he did this year. Even healthy, Robinson likely wouldn’t have cracked the top-100 scorers and didn’t have a realistic shot at becoming a 1,000-point scorer, but he did have a realistic shot at winding up within 15 or so slots of making the top 100.

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Christian Keeling and Justin Pierce both broke the 100-point barrier in their one year in Chapel Hill. Keeling had 212 career points (at Carolina) while Pierce had 159 career points (at Carolina), good for 222nd and 257th respectively.

Armando Bacot had a rather solid freshman year, scoring-wise. He finished fourth on the team with 308 points, which gets him just inside the top-200 career scorers (number 192 to be exact). Look for Bacot to make a huge jump in dependable scoring production in 2020-21. I expect Bacot to blow his freshman scoring numbers out of the water and rack up at least 400 points in his sophomore campaign.

Of the complementary scorers, at least one or two will need to increase their career scoring output for 2020-21 to be as successful as everyone hopes it is. Leaky Black, Sterling Manley (if healthy), and Andrew Platek have all scored between 200-300 career points. A jump in output from one (or multiple) of these three players would reap major benefits.

If healthy, expect Anthony Harris to his career 34 points, scored over the course of the five games he played in 2019-20.

Looking toward next year (assuming there is a season), Garrison Brooks should quickly become the 78th Tar Heel to score 1,000 career points. He needs just nine points to do so. For the record, Carolina has more 1,000 point scorers than any other school. Louisville is second with 68 to UNC’s 77.

Keep in mind that as new players assimilate, scoring needs and roles will change. For example, the team had to rely on Garrison Books’ scoring last year out of necessity. Assuming greater levels of health this year, Brook’s offensive production will be less essential.

Who will have the highest scoring output for the incoming freshmen? My prediction is Caleb Love. Right behind him is likely RJ Davis. Beyond that is anyone’s guess.

Hopefully, we will soon get to see how the players add to the career totals when the season starts in November. As with everything else in the world right now, we’ll have to wait and see if the college basketball season starts on time.

The next stat category I’ll be reviewing from the end of the 2019-20 season is career rebounding.

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