Jae’Lyn Withers still was at Louisville in 2022, so he wasn’t around North Carolina to experience the legend of Brady Manek first-hand. But he has heard enough about it, especially lately, to understand the significance and how it relates to him.
Manek is the graduate transfer who caught fire at just the right time and whose three-point shooting, rebounding and leadership helped catapult the Tar Heels from the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble to the national championship game.
Withers’ recent play has UNC fans on social media suggesting that he might be Manek’s second coming. Other than that Manek wore a distinctive red beard while Withers rocks shoulder-length braids, there are plenty of similarities.
Both players are 6-foot-9 stretch fours. Both started their careers at other schools (Manek transferred from Oklahoma). Both have outgoing, energetic personalities, and both displayed an ability to be a difference-maker once they got on a heater.
“I don’t want to make any comparisons because they’re two different players,” Tar Heels star RJ Davis, a 6-foot senior guard, said after Saturday’s rout of Miami. “But this stretch of games ‘Wit’ has put together has been huge for us.
“Just the way he’s consistently been able to shoot the ball well, and at the other end defend bigger guys, that’s something we’ve needed moving forward and we didn’t have that earlier in the season. He’s clicking at the right time of the year.”
Both Withers and his team appeared on pace to finish out the season with a whimper, not a bang, after lopsided losses to archrival Duke and Clemson during a dismal seven-day stretch in early February.
At 14-11 overall and 7-6 in the ACC, the Tar Heels were beginning to lose sight of the NCAA bubble and Withers was beginning to become an afterthought in coach Hubert Davis’ rotation, having been on the court for more than six minutes only twice in six games before Clemson.
Then, completely out of the blue, everything suddenly changed.
Given a start at Syracuse on Feb. 15 in hopes his size would help improve UNC’s interior defense, Withers went off for a season-high 19 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in 24 minutes.
The Tar Heels won the game 88-82 and haven’t lost since. Withers has averaged 13.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 25 minutes per game while making 11 of his 16 three-point attempts during UNC’s current five-game winning streak.
Withers’ contribution hasn’t just been limited to the stat sheet. The Tar Heels’ communication and connectivity have been vastly improved since his role was expanded. His hustle has been contagious, and his hot perimeter shooting has helped create more space around the rim for 6-foot-8 junior big man Ven-Allen Lubin, who has scored in double figures in each of the past four games while shooting a blistering 71 percent from the floor.
“I definitely think I’ve contributed to the level of play and the wins we’ve had,” Withers said after recording 11 points and 10 rebounds against Miami for his second double-double in the past three games. “The biggest thing is just bringing that energy and the effort. I’m making sure that everybody’s vocal on the court. (Hubert Davis) talks to me and tells me to rally everybody together and make sure we’re on the same page. Me and (RJ Davis) have really had to take over the leadership aspect of it.”
Their efforts have helped get UNC back into legitimate NCAA Tournament contention. But it’s still up in the air whether the Tar Heels (19-11, 12-6 ACC) finally have figured things out and hit on a winning formula, or if they’ve just fattened up on teams they’re supposed to beat. Their five straight wins have come over Syracuse, NC State, Virginia, Florida State and Miami; all have losing ACC records.
The real test will come this week, when, after a trap game at Virginia Tech on Tuesday, UNC closes out the regular season with a rematch against No. 2 Duke.
Will Jai Lucas’ hiring at Miami be a distraction for Duke?
The news that Duke assistant Jai Lucas will be hired to coach Miami next season wasn’t all that surprising.
Lucas, 36, the son of former Maryland star and No. 1 overall NBA draft pick John Lucas, has paid his dues. He has put in his time learning from some of the best coaches in the game — Rick Barnes at Texas, John Calipari at Kentucky and now Jon Scheyer — and is prepared for the challenge of leading a team.
It’s just that the timing of the published reports could have been better. They came only three days before the Blue Devils traveled to Coral Gables to inflict their obligatory beatdown on the ACC’s worst team. And it made for an awkward situation in which a coach was working to help his current team beat his future team.
“It comes with the territory of the job we signed up for, to be able to handle unusual situations well,” Scheyer said during the ACC’s weekly coaches’ Zoom conference last week, adding that the announcement of Lucas’ future plans “clearly wasn’t thought-out well enough.”
“Jai and I … he’s one of my best friends in the world,” Scheyer said. “Me and him are going to be able to navigate this. He’s a terrific coach, a terrific person.”
So far, so good. After beating Miami 97-60, Duke returned home Saturday to put a similarly thorough beatdown on Florida State.
But the dynamic between Scheyer and his top lieutenant promises to become more complicated once Lucas’ hiring becomes official, possibly as early as this week.
As Duke’s defensive coordinator, Lucas has been instrumental in helping the Blue Devils finish among the top 20 of KenPom.com’s defensive efficiency rankings in each of the past two seasons. This season’s team, thanks to the arrival of 7-foot-2 freshman rim protector Khaman Maluach, is even better at No. 4 nationally.
Lucas also works with Duke’s guards and has been a major influence on 6-foot-6 junior Tyrese Proctor’s growth this season. With a team to build and a staff to hire, there’s a danger that his hiring by Miami could potentially become a distraction as the Blue Devils contend for a national championship.
“Until something is final and done, I’m not going to speculate on what may or may not happen,” Scheyer said, calling these “unusual times.”
“I can tell you Jai and I, we started this thing three years ago and our intention is to finish it. But again, I don’t want to get into that until I know something is final and done, where we’ll have to cross that bridge when the time comes,” he said.
Around the Rim
• Clemson has climbed to No. 13 in The Associated Press Top 25. But because of attention being given to Duke and the top-heavy nature of the ACC, Brad Brownell’s Tigers continue to be one of the nation’s most undervalued teams. Their 71-58 win at Virginia on Saturday improved their record to 24-5. At 16-2 in the ACC, they’re one game behind the Blue Devils and on pace to finish with the second-most conference wins in a season since the league went to its current 20-game format in 2019. After going 7-1 in January, Clemson was 6-1 in February, including a win against Duke. All but two of their 16 ACC wins have come by double-digits. With many of the key elements from last season’sElite Eight team back, including 6-foot-4 senior point guard Chase Hunter and 6-foot-8 do-it-all senior forward Ian Schiefflein, the Tigers are poised for another deep postseason run. Even if no one is really noticing them yet.
• In a world not occupied by Duke’s Cooper Flagg, Louisville’s Chucky Hepburn, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, would be making a strong case for ACC Player of the Year honors. Hepburn, a Wisconsin transfer, leads the conference in steals, is second in assists and is just outside the top 10 in scoring at 16.3 points per game. He’s a big reason the 19th-ranked Cardinals (23-6, 16-2), who were 8-24 last season, are by far the most improved team in the country. Hepburn showed just how valuable he is against Pitts on Saturday. With the rest of his team struggling from the floor, he scored 18 straight points during a five-minute stretch late in the first half to put Louisville ahead. He finished with 37 points, going 6-of-6 from three-point range to carry his team to a 79-68 victory. “I’ve probably never seen (anybody) get that hot and go on a run like that by himself,” 6-foot-6 senior forward Terrence Edwards, a transfer from James Madison, told reporters afterward. “That kind of opened up the game.”
• While Clemson and Louisville are surging into the postseason, Wake Forest is heading in the opposite direction. The Deacons appeared to have solidified their spot in the NCAA Tournament field with a key road win at SMU on Feb. 15. But after following that up with back-to-back losses to ACC bottom-feeders NC State and Virginia — the latter on the road last Tuesday — Steve Forbes’ team finds itself right back on the wrong side of the bubble. It’s a similar situation to the one Wake faced a year ago. After putting itself in an advantageous situation by upsetting Duke in late February, Wake wasted the opportunity by losing itsnext three. “It’s not the way you want it to be, but here it is,” a frustrated Forbes said after the Virginia loss. Although the core of this season’s team is the same as it was in 2023-24, Forbes dismissed the idea that history is repeating itself. “Last year was last year, right?” he said. “These are two totally different teams, two totally different circumstances. This team here has lost their identity to defend and win basketball games.” Wake did beat Notre Dame on Saturday. But it probably will take a win at Duke on Monday and a strong showing at the ACC Tournament to have any chance at an at-large bid.
• Georgia Tech’s 87-62 victory against NC State on Saturday was significant for both. The Wolfpack went to the Final Four last season but are ensured a bottom-three finish in the ACC this season, which means they won’t get a chance to defend the conference tournament championship it won a year ago. The Yellow Jackets continued a surge that has moved them above .500 (at 15-14) for the first time since they were 8-7 on Jan. 4. Despite a rash of injuries that has left them with only eight healthy scholarship players, Damon Stoudamire’s team has won seven of its past 10 games. Not only is Tech getting strong play from 6-foot-9 sophomore center Baye Ndongo (who had a career-high 29 points and 17 rebounds against State) and 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Nait George (who had a career-high 12 assists), but 6-foot-8 junior forward Duncan Powell — who began his career at North Carolina A&T in 2022-23, then played at Sacramento State last season — has developed into a legitimate candidate for ACC Sixth Man of the Year honors. Unlike fellow second-year coaches Micah Shrewsberry at Notre Dame and Adrian Autry of Syracuse, both of whom are struggling to gain a foothold with their programs, Stoudamire is making positive progress in his effort to rebuild the Yellow Jackets.
