Cole Anthony’s reentry wasn’t smooth, to say the least.

When Carolina’s ballyhooed freshman took off his warm-up shirt and reported to the scorer’s table with 15:45 left in the first half against Boston College, the Smith Center crowd roared. The Tar Heels were ahead in a game they eventually lost 71-70 to a better-playing BC team, the latest opponent to dance at the Dean Dome after the final buzzer.

Funny, Anthony’s return from missing 11 games didn’t look all that different from when he started UNC’s first nine. He beat his scoring average by about 8 points, but the lead guard’s offense looked as out of sync as it had been early in the season. And, understandably, after recovering from knee surgery, when all he could do was shoot free throws, Anthony made 5 of 14 from the floor after missing all of his first-half shots, but went 14-for-14 at the foul line.

Since it wasn’t so smooth his first time around, you have to wonder whether his effect on “less gifted” teammates will get any better than before. No other starter made more than half of his field-goal attempts, and it was a figurative and literal disaster for the two players who had carried the team in Cole’s absence.

Going into the game, Garrison Brooks had moved into contention for All-ACC with steady-to-brilliant performances. He was averaging 15-plus points and 9-plus rebounds and shooting about 63 percent from the foul line. He finished an early evening of getting roughed-up by the BC big men, almost astonishingly, whiffing on all seven of his free throws, any two of which would have given Carolina the points needed for a victory.

Shooting 63 percent from the line means you should hit between 4-5 of 7 free throws you attempt. Zero for 7 is weird.

And leading long bomber B-Rob’s injuries are now in double figures for the season after spraining his ankle for the second or third time and needing help to leave the court.

Unless Anthony can reenter in a less-ragged way, and we sure hope he can, the debate among NBAers will continue over whether he should have come back at all. Another cost of losing.

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