UNC reserve forward Sterling Manley announced his plans to graduate and transfer from the university on Friday night.
In a social media post, Manley revealed his intentions to leave the basketball program after four seasons. He will have two more years of eligibility: one from the COVID-19 pandemic and one from redshirting due to injury.
“My teammates will always be my brothers and I will always be a Tar Heel,” Manley wrote. “My journey has been a little different, but with God, the great staff here at UNC, and my awesome family I have been able to persevere and continue to live my dream.”
Manley will depart Chapel Hill with a tenure hampered by leg injuries. He appeared in just 18 games during his sophomore season due to knee soreness and had surgery to repair cartilage in his left knee during the offseason, leading him to be unavailable during the 2019-2020 season. The 6-foot-11 forward also suffered severe leg injuries during his high school basketball career.
The Pickerington, Ohio native was limited to just three appearances this season in a reserve role, but made his first in-game appearance in two years during Senior Night against the Duke Blue Devils. In the waning seconds of the 91-73 UNC victory, Manley scored off an alley-oop pass and tallied his only points of the year.
He was limited to 18 games during the 2019-20 season, which was attributed to knee soreness, then had surgery to repair cartilage in his left knee and did not play during the 2019-20 campaign.
Friday’s announcement further depletes the UNC men’s basketball program’s forward and center positions after other departures announced this week. Former five-star recruit Walker Kessler said on Monday he would also be entering the transfer portal after one season with Carolina, while freshman Day’Ron Sharpe announced his plans to become eligible for the NBA Draft.
With his decision, Manley becomes the ninth player to transfer from the Carolina men’s basketball program during Williams’ 18-year coaching tenure.
Photo via ACC Media.
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I always liked Sterling and looked forward to seeing him healthy enough to play. With all due respect to him and his family, he has benefited from a full ride, excellent medical care and world class strength and conditioning over the last 4 years. I was delighted to see him play a few minutes in the Notre Dame game and hoped we were in for a lot more of that next season. Now that he is in a position to actually contribute, he is taking his talents elsewhere. That is the world we’re living in now. I am old school, but that feels immensely disloyal to me. Carolina could have cut him loose and used that scholarship for somebody who could actually play, but it is my understanding that they never did that. We are losing Walter Kessler and Day’ron Sharp, and heaven only knows if there will be more. It would’ve been nice for Sterling to stick around and earn his keep. There are still those special players, Luke Maye for example, who come to school because they love it and want to be there, but it feels like more and more we are living in an environment where it’s all about the individual and not about the team or the program. I remember as a young girl crying when the season was over and I knew that some of my favorite players would be graduating. Heck, I still do that. As much as I love senior night it always makes me cry. It feels like we are going to get to the point where that’s going to be obsolete. It’s a sad thing. I read an article recently with some sports writer talking all about how the athletes deserve the transfer portal so they can be just like any other student who has the ability to transfer whenever they feel like it. Well you know what, scholarship athletes are not like regular students. Regular students don’t have free rides, scholarships and free food and all the other perks that come along with it. At the very least, they walk away debt free and as educated as they’ve allowed themselves to be. At best they walk away with NBA scholarships or NFL scholarships courtesy of the free publicity they got from the world stage they play on. As a regular student back in the day, I can assure you most of us don’t get that and in fact we walk away with a huge coupon book. I do not feel sorry for college athletes. They make a commitment and they need to honor it. Allowing them to do otherwise is just another way this world is changing, and not for the better.