Report: Paige returning to UNC
The North Carolina Tar Heels got a big boost to their 2015-16 roster with the reported return of star guard Marcus Paige, a former Linn-Mar all-stater, for his senior season.
Per Bret Strelow of The Fayetteville Observer, Paige's father said his son will be a Tar Heel next year:
“Marcus Paige talked matter of factly after Sweet 16 loss about coming back. For double-checking purposes, his dad said today he is returning — Bret Strelow (@bretstrelow) April 11, 2015”
This comes after Paige all but said he was coming back following North Carolina's loss to Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament, via Andrew Carter of The News & Observer:
“I really enjoy being here and being a part of this program. And now I only have one more chance, so I'm going to try to use that as fuel. I can't tell you how much it means to be a part of this place and I only get one more year and it goes so fast."
Paige led the Tar Heels in scoring last season with 13.9 points per game and was terrific as a three-point shooter, hitting 39.5 percent of his attempts, according to ESPN.com.
Even though Paige didn't build on his career year in 2013-14, he still proved to be one of the best and most versatile scorers in the ACC. Head coach Roy Williams knows how to deploy him, as evidenced in three tournament games during March in which Paige scored 46 points.
The ACC figures to be competitive once again with Duke losing a lot of talent from its national title team and Virginia never being the most effective scoring team, so North Carolina could vault to the top of a loaded conference thanks in large part to the return of Paige.
