There’s lots of Carolina blue gloating going on over Walker Kessler.
Another outcome that made the weekend all the sweeter to be a Tar Heel was Auburn going down to unranked Miami and Kessler playing his worst game for Bruce Pearl.
Of course, it’s a much larger story beginning almost one year ago when Kessler’s father — a former college basketball player — showed up in Chapel Hill after Carolina’s painful NCAA loss to Wisconsin to meet with Roy Williams.
Chad Kessler reportedly told Ol’ Roy that he wasn’t using his son the right way, that Walker is really a stretch forward who needs to shoot 3-pointers when he’s open.
Roy offered to show Kessler the video and stats they keep on every practice, explain why Walker was playing behind Garrison Brooks, Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe and wasn’t shooting any 3-balls. He hadn’t earned the right in practice, which determines who plays and what they’re allowed to do in games.
Williams said he believed Walker could become one of UNC’s great players, but he wasn’t there yet. A month later, Hubert Davis snatched up Brady Manek as his true stretch four.
North Carolina coach Roy Williams has a word with Walker Kessler (13) during the first half against Louisville on Saturday, February 20, 2021 at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Photo via ACC Media.)
In the one-sided loss to unranked Miami, Kessler got into foul trouble early and wound up with a miserable stat line of 2 points and 2 rebounds in 13 minutes. The TV cameras closed in on his sad face as he finished the season shooting 20 percent from the arc.
While Kessler has been a projected 1st-round draft pick for months, his stock has likely dropped as Auburn went 6-5 in its last 11 games and is losing its true star, Jabari Smith Jr., to the NBA.
Pearl, banned from coaching for three years after he lied to NCAA investigators while at Tennessee, received a $52 million contract extension about the time his team’s collapse began. He had told the Kesslers what they wanted to hear while recruiting them out of the transfer portal, and Walker was a great rebounder and shot blocker. But he’s far from the stretch 4 his father claimed.
It may indeed be poetry in motion that Carolina and Brady Manek are in the Sweet 16 and Kessler and his new team are home starting their off-season. For now, at least, it is the trade Tar Heels everywhere are laughing about all the way to Philadelphia.
Photo via AP Photo/Chris Carlson.
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