Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images The future is looking bright for Roy Williams and Carolina basketball. This afternoon the McDonald’s All-American Game roster was officially announced on ESPN’s show The Jump. In perhaps the best news that Tar Heels fans have heard so far in 2020, four UNC commits were named to the roster. Five-star commits Day’Ron Sharpe, Walker Kessler, and Caleb Love, as well as four-star RJ Davis all made the cut, giving the Heels the most All-Americans since Joel Berry, Justin Jackson, and Theo Pinson back in 2014. Day’Ron Sharpe is a 6’10” center that currently plays for Montverde Academy in Montverde, FL. He is the 14th best player in the country, and is the third best player at the center position. Sharpe made a significant climb up the high school rankings over the last 12 months, as this time last year he was just the 36th best player in the country. He had a monster AAU season this past summer, and continues to be dominant with Montverde. He is a strong, aggressive player that should be able to give the Tar Heels a lot of production in the post. Walker Kessler is a 7’0” center that currently plays for Woodward Academy in Fairburn, GA. He is the 16th best player in the country, and the fourth best player at the center position. Kessler was a highly-recruited player that ended up in the middle of a recruiting battle between Duke and UNC. Despite many thinking that he would choose to take his talents to Durham, he picked the Tar Heels in order to give Roy Williams yet another dangerous big man. While Sharpe is more of a bully in the paint, Kessler is more of a Swiss army knife of a big man with many scoring moves under his belt. Perhaps his most important attribute is his ability to stretch the floor, which will cause a lot of matchup problems for teams in the ACC when he arrives in Chapel Hill. Caleb Love is a 6’3” point guard that currently plays for Christian Brothers College in St. Louis, MO. He is the 21st best player in the country, and is the third best player at the point guard position. Love is yet another scoring machine that Roy Williams was able to land a commitment from, giving him his third elite high school point guard in the last three years. Scoring aside, Love also has the potential to be a good defender at the college level, and his facilitation skills have shown improvement. He’s having a monster year with CBC, which is exemplified by his 42-point performance last Saturday night against East St. Louis. Finally, RJ Davis is a 5’11 shooting guard that currently plays for Archbishop Stepinac in White Plains, NY. He is the 58th-best player in the country, and the 8th best combo guard in the 2020 class. While Davis is a four-star commit, the season that he’s been having makes his All-American nod less of a surprise. Much like Love, Davis is known for his scoring prowess, and is able to light it up from anywhere on the court. The duo of Love and Davis is sure to be a breath of fresh air after the tremulous season that Carolina has had this season. The McDonald’s All-American game will take place on April 1st at 4 pm CT in Houston, TX. For those that will be in the area around that time, you can purchase tickets by clicking here when they become available. Congratulations to all four future Tar Heels on making the All-American team. Go Heels!

Michael Thomas Shroyer-USA TODAY Sports It was a noble effort by the junior, who was clearly gassed by the end This season has really known nothing but pain, and that pain continued last night in Blacksburg as a team that everyone assumed had given up by the performance on Saturday took Virginia Tech to two overtimes. That they did it without Brandon Robinson on top of all their other injuries makes it all the more laudable. That’s where we are in the season: silver-lining tough losses. It wasn’t for a lack of effort by the players, this time. With the crippling injuries Roy Williams has faced, he played just a seven man rotation, with four players getting 45 minutes or more. The effort was there, but by the end it was clear the players on the floor just had no energy left. The player who gave the strongest effort was, to nobody's surprise, Garrison Brooks. The junior has been thrust into a role where he has been forced to step up just about every game, and he answered the call this time with 28 points and 12 rebounds, all in 48 minutes of work. It’s also notable he was 6-8 from the free throw line, but the misses came earlier in the game, and when he was called on to hit big free throws later, he made them. Virginia Tech was so tired of getting burned that they doubled Brooks every time he touched the ball by the end. This was made easier by Armando Bacot fouling out of the game in the first OT, and playing the majority of the second half with foul trouble. Without the second big man to worry about, the Hokies were able to correctly guess that if they shut down Brooks, the Tar Heel offense would stagnate. Still, the Tar Heels had a chance to win the game in regulation with a ten footer by Brooks, but he rushed the shot slightly and it was long. Still, unlike any other end game situation this season, you actually felt like they got it to the right player at the right time. Also worth noting in this one is the three point shooting of two players, Justin Pierce and Leaky Black. We learned before the game that Leaky has been playing with a sprained wrist, but he toughed through it to score 12 points on 3-6 shooting behind the arc in 47 minutes. Pierce went 3-5 behind the arc, and 6-10 overall, scoring 15 in his 45 minutes of play. Pierce got the start in the Brandon Robinson spot and had arguably his best game of the season, and easily his best since the UNCW game. If there is one positive to come out of this season, it’s the growth of Garrison Brooks’ game. Teams forced to double him should leave space for his front court mate and the eventual return of Cole Anthony. It may be too little, too late to save the season, but there is at least some reason for hope the team will improve as the ACC Season moves on.