Final Four 2017: Sleeper impact player from each team
North Carolina – Luke Maye
Maye’s tournament run so far — and his shot against Kentucky, sending North Carolina into the Final Four — are close to taking him off the sleeper radar. But we’re including him here anyway, simply because of the element he’s introduced to North Carolina’s offense.
Roy Williams and crew have long eschewed over-reliance on the 3-pointer for an offensive attack focused on transition and offensive boards. Even this year, when he’s had the combination of Justin Jackson and Joel Berry putting up two of the finest seasons from 3 North Carolina has ever seen, the Tar Heels took just over 30 percent of their attempts from 3.
But they’ve both struggled in the NCAA tournament. Though Jackson has found ways to contribute throughout the tournament, he’s just 6 for his last 19 from 3. And Berry, other than a glorious outing against Butler, has struggled with ankle injuries and his shot throughout the tournament. He’s 6-for-26 in the tournament, and was 0-5 in North Carolina’s Elite Eight win over Kentucky.
Enter Luke Maye. The sophomore former walk-on has been having a breakout NCAA Tournament, hitting double digits scoring in three of four outings. He had only hit double digits three times in the entire regular season, for context. And especially in his last two games, he’s been on fire from 3 — he’s hit 5 of his 8 attempts, becoming a reliable option from 3 for a UNC team that’s been missing those same contributions from its only other good shooters.
Maye is a bit of a unicorn in a UNC frontcourt that prefers brawn and offensive rebounding to shooting. With Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks, and MCDAA freshman Tony Bradley ahead of him in the rotation pecking order on the year, Maye didn’t get many chances to let his talents shine. But he’s unique in the UNC frontcourt in that he can both hit the boards like everyone else, then also step out to shoot from 3 and the mid-range. He’s grabbed 13 percent and 17.5 percent of the boards on the offensive and defensive end, respectively, while on the floor. But he’s also canned 41 percent of his threes on the year (though only on 39 attempts), while also hitting about 45 percent of his 2-point jumpers.
His floor-spacing ability, as it comes without many sacrifices on the boards, has been huge for North Carolina in this tournament. Adding another reliable shooting option to an offense suddenly starved for them was key to UNC’s early victories, and will be an important determining factor in how far they can manage to go.