UNC’s Marcus Paige injures hand, out 3-4 weeks

After laboring through a painful foot condition that limited his mobility and hindered his productivity during his junior season, North Carolina guard Marcus Paige recently had been speaking with a sense of gratefulness that he was finally healthy.

Which likely makes what he’s enduring now all the more difficult. During practice on Tuesday, Paige broke a bone in his right, nonshooting, hand and is expected to miss the next three to four weeks, the school announced Wednesday.

The injury is a blow to a Tar Heels team that is ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press preseason top 25 poll, which was released Monday. Paige’s absence will force coach Roy Williams to be more reliant on players who might have otherwise entered the season as reserves.

“I hate it for Marcus,” Williams said in a statement. “He’s such a wonderful young man – one of the most outstanding people I have been lucky to coach. I know he’ll handle this with the same level of maturity and responsibility that he does everything else.”

Paige has been a standout for UNC on the court and off, and he was selected as the ACC’s co-preseason player of the year last week during the conference’s annual media day. Paige has also appeared on numerous preseason All-American lists.

If Paige, who broke the third metacarpal in his right hand, is unable to play during the next four weeks, he’d miss UNC’s first six games. That stretch includes a game on Nov. 21 at Northern Iowa that UNC scheduled to give Paige, an Iowa native, a homecoming.

Paige’s injury isn’t expected to affect him long term, but it comes after he played most of last season through plantar fasciitis, a painful foot condition. He underwent surgery in April on his right ankle to remove bone spurs that contributed to the development of the plantar fasciitis.

As recently as Tuesday, when he spoke with The News & Observer in an extended interview before the start of practice, Paige said he felt as healthy as he had since the end of his sophomore season, when he averaged 17.5 points per game. Now comes another setback.

Even amid the plantar fasciitis last season, Paige didn’t miss a game. He has missed just one game during his first three seasons – a victory during his freshman season against Alabama-Birmingham when Paige rested a strained shoulder.

Paige sustained the injury, team spokesman Steve Kirschner said, while defending another player driving to the basket. Paige’s hand became stuck in the other player’s jersey. The injury will not require surgery and is expected to heal on its own, Kirschner said.

Paige last season led UNC with an average of 14.1 points per game and earned the team’s MVP award for the second consecutive season – a distinction held by just five other players in school history, including Michael Jordan, Antawn Jamison and Tyler Hansbrough.

In his first three seasons, Paige has averaged 13.2 points per game. He’s nine 3-pointers away from becoming UNC’s all-time leader in most 3-pointers made.

In Paige’s absence, UNC will become more reliant on Nate Britt, a junior point guard, and Joel Berry, a sophomore. Berry, who emerged to become a key contributor toward the end of last season, could become the leading candidate to fill in for Paige in the starting lineup.

“Our team will certainly be challenged in (Paige’s) absence,” Williams said in a statement. “We will need everyone up and down the roster to step up their games and take care of each other and our team until he gets back.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 4:26 PM with the headline "UNC’s Marcus Paige injures hand, out 3-4 weeks."