A busy day for North Carolina basketball was completed with veteran wing Anthony Harris entering the NCAA transfer portal.
First, sophomore forward/center Dawson Garcia entered the transfer portal. That was followed by the big news of the day: Armando Bacot back for his senior season in Chapel Hill. Finally, Harris announced his decision on Twitter.
Harris is a redshirt sophomore. He just finished his third year with the UNC program.
🎤 pic.twitter.com/X6mVnKbvqk
— ️Ant_harris#3™ (@MANZANT3) April 13, 2022
Harris appeared in 14 games this season — with average of 11.7 minutes per contest. However, he last suited up in a game for UNC back on Jan. 8, a home win over Virginia, due to undisclosed reasons. Harris continued to practice and travel with the team, but he was no longer an active player.
UNC Career: Up and Down
Before Harris arrived at North Carolina, he was a 4-star prospect in the 2019 recruiting class. Initially, Harris committed to Virginia Tech in Oct. 2018. However, Harris was released from his LOI after Buzz Williams left for Texas A&M.
Three weeks later, Harris committed to North Carolina; he joined a strong 2019 recruiting class along with Cole Anthony and Bacot. In April 2019, Harris actually picked UNC on the same day that Anthony committed, too.
During his senior year of prep basketball (2018-19), Harris missed most of the season after tearing his left ACL in December. Harris played for Paul VI Catholic, where he was teammates with current Duke guards Jeremy Roach and Trevor Keels.
Unfortunately, the bad luck with injuries followed Harris to Chapel Hill. Five games into his freshman season, tore his right ACL during a Dec. 2019 game vs. Yale.
Harris received a redshirt for the 2019-20 season and didn’t appear in a game for the 2020-21 season until Jan. 2021. In total, Harris appeared in 16 games this season; he averaged 11.0 minutes, 3.2 points and 1.3 assists per game.
Throughout his career, Harris showed an ability to be a sound perimeter defender — due to a combination of system know-how and size. Harris averaged 2.2 steals per 40 minutes across his first two seasons at UNC.
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