CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A disappointing season for the North Carolina Tar Heels went from bad to worse when six players entered the transfer portal at the conclusion of the season - including a trio of wins in Puff Johnson, Tyler Nickel, and Dontrez Styles.
The team already replenished some depth with the addition of Brown forward Paxton Wojcik via the transfer portal, but coach Hubert Davis still has plenty of holes to fill to get this team fully stocked and ready to rebound from a disappointing 2022-23 season.
Enter Harrison Ingram, the former Pac-12 Freshman of the Year at Stanford who is now in the portal and has already had multiple conversations with Davis and the Heels this week.
In two seasons at Stanford under former UNC assistant coach Jerod Haase, Ingram averaged 10.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 3.4 assists while shooting 39.8% from the field and 31.5% from deep. He was projected by many to be a one-and-done first round pick, but ultimately returned to Stanford and fell out of the draft conversation.
Now he'll have a chance to rebuild his draft value at a new school, and Locked on Tar Heels host Isaac Schade believes Chapel Hill is the ideal place to be.
"What would it be like to have a legit point forward at Carolina?" Schade pondered, referencing Ingram's 3.7 assists per game last year. "Somebody to be able to run the show from the wing position, that would be really beneficial for the Tar Heels."
North Carolina returns star post Armando Bacot but lost guard Caleb Love to the transfer portal and wing Leaky Black to graduation, leaving them in a relatively desperate situation to add scoring punch as well as a facilitator - something Ingram could provide if put into the correct role.
Ingram hasn't been all that efficient up to this point in his career, but moving from a ball-dominant role at Stanford to more of a complimentary role at UNC alongside Bacot and RJ Davis could help him thrive and showcase the valuable skills that made him such an intriguing NBA draft prospect last year.