UNC Basketball: Brandon Huffman to enter transfer portal per Inside Carolina

For the second year in a row, UNC basketball will lose a player to the transfer portal. On Thursday evening, Greg Barnes at Inside Carolina broke that the rising senior plans to enter the transfer portal.

Huffman came to UNC in 2017 as part of the five-man recruiting class that also included Jalek Felton, Sterling Manley, Andrew Platek, and Garrison Brooks. At the time he was viewed a multi-year project, though 247 Sports listed him as a four-star recruit and the #1 player in North Carolina for 2017. His size, raw strength, facial expressions, and willingness to dunk anything within one foot of the basket made him an early favorite among fans.

Unfortunately, a dominant front court of Manley, Brooks, and Huffman never materialized in their time together. The 6-10, 255-pound center struggled to find a role in an offense that thrives on inside enforcers, and his playing time quickly diminished throughout his junior campaign. After appearing in 56 games as a freshman and sophomore, Huffman logged action in just 14 games this past season.

Some of that missed time can be attributed a leg injury, but even when dressed out Huffman’s only played a season-high eight minutes in the second game of the season at UNC-Wilmington. During a season when UNC rarely had more than nine scholarship players available, Huffman struggled to see the court.

In 70 career appearances, Huffman averaged 1.4 points and 1.1 rebound per game. With a top-3 recruiting class that includes two McDonald’s All-American post players in Walker Kessler and Day’Ron Sharpe joining the locker room, playing time next season would be sparse for the reserve big man. Garrison Brooks has also already announced he will be coming back, and Armando Bacot hinted he would do the same after the season-ending loss to Syracuse.

Regardless, Huffman committed to UNC at a time that Chapel was borderline radioactive to recruits. For that, we should be thankful.

Best of luck to Brandon in his future endeavors, both on and off the court.