UNC freshmen Francis and Harris showing they can contribute while Anthony is out
When Garrison Brooks and Roy Williams sat at the podium for their post-game press conference after North Carolina’s 74-64 win over UCLA, the name tags identifying where each person would sit were switched.
Brooks was sitting behind Williams’ name tag and vice-versa. So when the moderator asked the head coach to make an opening statement, Brooks proceeded.
“It was a tough fought victory,” Brooks said, imitating his coach. Williams laughed.
It was a different vibe than the one given off the last three weeks after the Tar Heels lost four consecutive games. After each of those games, the mood was grim.
Williams had voiced his frustrations about his team making plays. And the players said they were tired of losing.
“It was a tough stretch for us, and we didn’t really plan on this at all, just losing four straight games,” Brooks said Saturday.
But Saturday’s win lightened the mood. And while the Tar Heels still don’t look like an NCAA tournament team yet, it was certainly a step in the right direction. The Tar Heels have eight days off between their next game against Yale on Dec. 30, which will be their final non-conference game of the season.
The win over UCLA should provide a boost of confidence for the Tar Heels. Especially considering what they got from a couple of their freshman reserves.
Freshman guard Anthony Harris scored a career-high 14 points, all of which came in the second half. He gave them a spark when the Tar Heels seemed to go cold in the second half.
And freshman point guard Jeremiah Francis scored a season-high 12 points. It was only their fourth time playing this season since coming off knee injuries. The two freshmen made their season debuts against Virginia on Dec. 8.
That Francis and Harris played well is a positive sign for the Tar Heels.
Prior to that, UNC’s bench had struggled. The Tar Heels were not getting much from their older players. And in the second half of this game, juniors Andrew Platek and K.J. Smith and grad transfers Justin Pierce and Christian Keeling combined to play for five minutes.
“I pointed at three or four guys in the locker room, and I said, ‘Do you want to play?’” Williams recalled. “’You didn’t play much in the second half. If you want to play, play better.’
“Anthony didn’t ask me one time about, ‘am I going to get to play?’ Didn’t ask me one question about playing time. The only thing he did is, when I gave him a chance, he played his butt off. It’s pretty simple.”
990 days
It had been 990 days from the last time Francis played a high school basketball game, to his college debut against Virginia earlier this month. He had two knee surgeries on his left knee in high school and didn’t play at all during his junior and senior seasons.
But since returning to the court, it’s almost as if he hasn’t missed a beat.
Francis, who is 6-feet, 210 pounds, scored 11 points against Gonzaga, and followed that up with a 12-point performance against UCLA.
So when Williams was asked how surprised he was that Francis was playing as well as he was, Williams said part of him is “stunned.”
“We had no idea. We were hoping,” Williams said. “But every day in the weight room I saw him I got more encouraged.”
Francis said he doesn’t feel the pressure of trying to carry the team with star freshman Cole Anthony out. Anthony had a knee procedure done earlier this week and will miss at least a month.
“It’s just next man up,” Francis said. “That’s what I’ve always been taught, just next man up, and I’m going to do my job to the best of my ability.”
‘Tyler Hansbrough-like’
Harris, who led the team with 14 points on Saturday, was not available after the game because he needed to catch a flight.
But he, too, had a long journey back from a knee injury. The 6-4, 190-pound freshman tore his ACL in December 2018, while a senior at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Virginia.
To get back to full health, both Francis and Harris, who are roommates, worked out every morning at 6:30 a.m. with UNC’s trainer and strength coach to rehab from their injuries. And each day, they got stronger.
“What Jeremiah Francis and Anthony Harris have done since they came to school in June for — end of June for second session, summer school, is Tyler Hansbrough-like level,” Williams said. “I would go to the weight room just to try to work out, myself. But I would find myself watching all the things these guys did.”
Both Harris and Francis made their season debuts in the second half against Virginia on Dec. 8. Both did not do much.
But since then, they have continued to improve.
Saturday’s game was the first time Harris had scored in double figures and second for Francis. Harris finished 5 of 7 from the floor and 2 of 3 from behind the 3-point line. He scored eight of his 14 points in a one-minute and five-second stretch late in the second half, and helped extend the Tar Heels’ lead to 12 points with six minutes left in the game.
Francis was 1 of 8 but was 9 of 10 from the free throw line and had four assists. All nine of his free throws came in the game’s final five minutes.
Their play was crucial to the Tar Heels’ victory, and they’ll be needed moving forward as ACC-play approaches.
Sure, it was only one game. But it appears the Tar Heels have found something.
This story was originally published December 21, 2019 at 9:07 PM.
