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The Associated Press named Carolina senior Armando Bacot to its Preseason All-America team on Monday, the first Tar Heel to earn the honor since Luke Maye before the 2018–19 season. Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe, the reigning national player of the year, and Gonzaga center Drew Timme were unanimous selections. Also on the team are Houston guard Marcus Sasser and Indiana forward Tayce Jackson-Davis.
Cameron Johnson shook off a right hip contusion to have his best game of the season Sunday night. In 23 minutes, Johnson collected 11 points, three 3-pointers, five rebounds, two assists and a steal as the Phoenix Suns (2–1) easily won on the road against the Los Angeles Clippers 112–95.
Cole Anthony played a good all-around game as Orlando challenged the reigning Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics in the Magic’s home opener. However, it came apart in the final minutes as Boston moved to 3–0 and Orlando fell to 0–3 after the Celtics’ 126–120 victory Saturday night.
Cole Anthony missed Orlando’s opener on Wednesday because he felt sick but to say that he was doing fine on Friday night would be an understatement. He matched Atlanta star Trae Young’s scoring output with 25 points in the Magic’s 108–98 Friday road loss to the Hawks, but they had contrasting games. Anthony came off the bench hot with 17 points in 12 first-half minutes while Young went scoreless in the first half.
Season one as an NBA starter began well for Cameron Johnson after missing most of the preseason with a right thumb injury. It was going fine with 15 points and three 3-pointers in the Phoenix Suns’ 107–105 come-from-behind home victory Wednesday over the Dallas Mavericks before he left the game with nearly 10 minutes remaining in the game because of cramping and didn’t return.
That noise that Coach Hubert Davis wants his team to ignore just keeps getting louder. One day after Carolina was voted No. 1 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, the media picked the Tar Heels to win the ACC in a landslide vote, with junior center Armando Bacot nearly the unanimous ACC Preseason Player of the Year and junior guard Caleb Love joining him on the Preseason All-ACC first team.
Nassir Little and Cameron Johnson start their fourth NBA seasons Wednesday night and sought extensions of their rookie contracts, but only Little was able to strike a deal. Little agreed to a four-year $28-million contract extension with Portland on Monday. Given that Little hasn’t had many chances to show what he could do, he could have declined and hoped for a bigger deal if he had a breakout season. He opted for financial security.
Coach Hubert Davis said that he wants his players to avoid the outside noise just like last year, but the difference is that this year’s noise tells them how good they are. That noise just got louder. Carolina is ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll, the 10th time the Tar Heels have been top-ranked entering a season. It marks the 111th week in AP poll history that UNC has been No. 1.
Justin Jackson, who is apparently in a battle with Jake Layman for the final Boston roster spot, hit a couple of big buckets in the Celtics’ 137–134 overtime loss to Toronto on Friday in Montreal. Jackson had only five points in eight minutes but hit an 11-foot jumper with 36.8 seconds left in regulation to give Boston a one-point lead after assisting on a Sam Hauser 3-pointer. In overtime, Jackson sank a 26-foot 3-point attempt with three minutes left and assisted on a Noah Vonleh bucket with 8.6 seconds remaining.
CHARLOTTE — Continuity in the Carolina backcourt has been rare since Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington started three consecutive seasons, culminating with the 2009 national championship. There have been productive combinations, such as the duo of Marcus Paige and Joel Berry II that led Carolina to the 2016 Final Four or the pairing of Berry and Theo Pinson during the Tar Heels’ 2017 national championship season. But personnel changed from year to year.
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