North Carolina senior Garrison Brooks is not in the starting lineup and is not expected to play in the second round of the ACC tournament against the no. 11 selected Notre Dame does not play. Before the game, Brooks was dressed, but he did not warm up.
Brooks landed on an opponent’s foot while hitting a jumper and injuring his ankle in the early minutes of the win over Duke last Saturday. He returned to court in that game, placing 14 points (including two three-pointers) and 5 rebounds in 25 minutes on Senior Night, but has not trained since.
This is the second game that Brooks missed in 132 career games at UNC.
During the normal 2020-21 season, Brooks averaged 10.6 points and 6.9 rebounds while shooting 47.9 percent from the field. The Alabama native started 22 and played in all 25 UNC games.
“I just saw the confidence in him and him playing freely and knowing what he could do and what he was capable of,” Caleb Love said after the win over Duke. ‘I saw Garrison drop a lot of tries in practice, and I saw him knock down some in the game, and then I saw how he knocked down some last year. So only he who has the confidence in himself and shot it with confidence, and he beat them. ‘
With Brooks out of the series, freshman center Day’Ron Sharpe is starting the start for UNC. Sharpe is Carolina’s sixth man to score three starts and plays in all 25 games,
A Greenville, NC rookie, Sharpe averaged 9.7 points and a team-high 7.8 rebounds per game while shooting 51.3 percent from the field. The UNC big man started three times and played in all 25 games, averaging 19.2 minutes per game. Sharpe added a total of 22 blocks to the team. He is ranked by kenpom.com at number 1 in the country in offensive rebound percentage.
North Carolina rookie Walker Kessler will also see more time with Brooks outside. Kessler scores 4.1 points per game and averages 8.0 minutes per game. Kessler’s points and production increased late in ACC play. He scored 9, 10, 10, 10 and 20 points in consecutive games.
The no. 6-tar heels are expected to hit the ACC network with Notre Dame at 9:10 p.m.