UNC Basketball: Dontrez Styles has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal

Today it was announced that sophomore guard Dontrez Styles has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. For those who have been paying attention this season, this probably isn’t the biggest surprise, but it does mean that Hubert Davis has yet another roster spot to fill going into the 2023 season.

Styles’ UNC career has been a bizarre one to say the least, and we don’t really know why things transpired the way that they did. We’ve pointed this out numerous times, but Hubert Davis has always said that he needs to see players playing well in practice for them to get playing time. With Styles things felt a bit messier than that, mostly because it seemed like everyone was getting playing time except him. This season he averaged 5.9 minutes a game, which is only .1 minutes higher than his average last season, which was the infamous “Iron Five” season. To be fair, freshman center Jalen Washington averaged fewer minutes than he did, but this was barely true. It just never felt like Styles was ever going to be given a fair chance to prove himself, and ultimately I think that is what lead to this transfer.

I wish that we knew more about what really went on between Davis and Styles, but at this point it is what it is. Styles will move on to a different team, and Davis now has to figure out yet another player to grab in the portal. Some quick math to point out: Leaky Black and Pete Nance opened up the scholarships for freshmen Simeon Wilcher and Zayden High, so Dontrez Styles, Justin McKoy, and Tyler Nickel left three vacant scholarships. I get the feeling that there is at least one more player leaving soon, so Davis has quite a bit of work ahead of him this spring.

For more discussion about how the season ended, and how we think the team moves forward going into the 2023-24 season, check out our latest episode of the What in Tar Nation podcast.

What do you think of Styles’ decision to enter the portal? let us know in the comments below.