Heel Tough Blog: UNC Big Man Jalen Washington Enters the Transfer Portal

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Elliot Cadeau was the first Tar Heel basketball player to enter the transfer portal earlier today, but he wasn’t the only one, as Jalen Washington joined him, after spending the last three seasons in the UNC program. After Armando Bacot exhausted his college eligibility, the hope was that Washington would be ready to take over as the starting big man for Carolina, but we should’ve known he wasn’t ready for that role, with the way that Carolina went after every possible big man in the transfer portal last off-season. Washington spent time in and out of the starting lineup, before settling into a role off the bench down the stretch of the season, as he averaged 5.7 points, and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 59% from the field, but just 28% from behind the arc, never becoming the stretch-5 he was recruited to be. 

Carolina stayed committed to Washington, after he suffered a severe knee injury in high school, that played a role in his slower development. While many other schools would’ve pulled their scholarship, that’s not the way that UNC does things. 

It’s unfortunate that Washington never developed into the player that the UNC staff had hoped for, because there isn’t a nicer kid in the sport of college basketball, who deserves to see success on the basketball court. After his game-saving plays in the win at NC State back in early January, there was hope that could be the turning point for him individually, but that never came to fruition. He was a key factor in Carolina’s win over Boston College, scoring a career-high 18 points in the overtime win over the Eagles, but he also got injured in the win and was hardly the same player the rest of the way. 

With the way that UNC recruited big men last off-season, you know that’s going to be a focus this off-season, and Washington transferring only adds to the sense of urgency to bring in a difference-maker down low. Ven-Allen Lubin has expressed his desire to remain with the program but has cited that the NIL has to make sense. James Brown’s future is unknown, but he isn’t expected to be in the portal, knowing that his freshman season was all about acclimating himself to the program. The Tar Heels don’t have a big man in the incoming recruiting class, meaning that they will rebuild, and reshape their frontcourt via the transfer portal, in hopes of adding the type of size you’re used to seeing on the Carolina roster. 

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