North Carolina's Joel Berry, the Most Outstanding Player of the 2017 Final Four, has a broken bone in his right hand that will require him to miss approximately four weeks, the school announced Monday afternoon. He suffered it when he punched a door after losing while playing video games over the weekend, according to UNC coach Roy Williams.
Berry scored 14 points in 21 minutes during a 70-64 win over Memphis in a scrimmage held Friday night inside FedExForum. The 6-foot senior averaged 14.7 points, 3.6 assists and 3.1 rebounds last season while helping the Tar Heels win the third national championship of Williams' Hall of Fame career.
Four weeks from Monday is Nov. 20.
That's the same day North Carolina is scheduled to play at Stanford in what would be the Tar Heels' third regular-season game. The PK80-Phil Knight Invitational begins three days later. The Tar Heels open that event with Portland on Nov. 23. They'll play either Arkansas or Oklahoma on Nov. 24, and either Michigan State, Oregon, Connecticut or DePaul on Nov. 26. In other words, Berry will probably miss at least two games and possibly six or more. UNC plays Michigan on Nov. 29 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
Freshman Jalek Felton, a consensus top-30 national recruit, and sophomore Seventh Woods, who averaged 7.7 minutes per game last season, are likely to split time at the point guard position in Berry's absence. The Tar Heels are No. 11 in the CBS Sports preseason Top 25 (and one) and No. 9 in the USA Today Sports preseason coaches poll.
