Fansided

Ranking the top 30 UNC basketball players in program history

By Cooper Watson

CHAPEL HILL, NC - MARCH 7: Michael Jordan kisses former coach Dean Smith of the North Carolina Tar Heels during a halftime ceremony honoring the 1993 national championship team during a game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at the Dean Smith Center on March 7, 2007 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC - MARCH 7: Michael Jordan kisses former coach Dean Smith of the North Carolina Tar Heels during a halftime ceremony honoring the 1993 national championship team during a game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at the Dean Smith Center on March 7, 2007 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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CHAPEL HILL, NC – NOVEMBER 29: Members of the 1957 North Carolina Tar Heels championship team, including Lennie Rosenbluth, center, during a game against the Michigan Wolverines on November 29, 2017 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina won 86-71. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC – NOVEMBER 29: Members of the 1957 North Carolina Tar Heels championship team, including Lennie Rosenbluth, center, during a game against the Michigan Wolverines on November 29, 2017 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina won 86-71. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images) /

3. Lennie Rosenbluth (1954-57)

Rosenbluth is another guy who was at UNC before freshmen became eligible to play, but his accomplishments in just three seasons speak for themselves.

He averaged 26.0 PPG and 10.4 RPG on his career, with over 10 free throw attempts per game. He was All-ACC First Team all three years and a consensus second and first-team All-American in 1956 and 1957.

Rosenbluth’s 1956-57 season was one of the greatest in the history of college basketball. UNC went 32-0 and won the ACC regular-season and tournament titles as well as the national title—just the second undefeated national champion in history. Rosenbluth was the ACC Player of the Year, National Player of the Year, ACC Tournament MVP, and NCAA Tournament MVP. He averaged 30.8 PPG over the 1957 postseason, which culminated in the Heels taking down Wilt Chamberlain’s Kansas Jayhawks in the national title game.

Rosenbluth is 4th in UNC history in career scoring—first among players that only played three seasons. He also has the highest-scoring season and four of the top seven highest-scoring games in UNC.

Although Rosenbluth’s career came before Dean Smith took UNC to the next level in terms of popularity, his impact in leading North Carolina to its first NCAA Championship was undeniably important in building a strong foundation for the program.