Angelo Brizzi’s Long College Basketball Journey Comes Full Circle at UNC

Seven years ago, Angelo Brizzi visited Chapel Hill as a high school basketball recruit.

At the time, Roy Williams was North Carolina’s head coach. Caleb Love and Walker Kessler were among the other recruits on campus. Brizzi was considering the Tar Heels, but ultimately chose Villanova before UNC’s point guard recruitment completely played itself out.

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He probably couldn’t have imagined then how long it would take him to ultimately wear Carolina blue (or if he ever would).

But after stops at Villanova, Davidson, Longwood, and Buffalo (and after believing his college career was already over) Brizzi has finally arrived at North Carolina.

Talk about coming full circle.

“I made the decision to commit to Villanova before Kennedy [Chandler] made a decision,” Brizzi recalled during his preseason press conference Monday. “It’s funny, but also pretty cool to be back here five, six years later. It’s just full circle.”

Brizzi’s road back to Chapel Hill somehow became even more unusual this summer.

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After averaging a career-best 14.5 points per game at Buffalo last season, Brizzi had begun preparing to play professionally overseas. He had hired an agent and started discussing European opportunities because, for all intents and purposes, his college career was finished.

There was technically still an NCAA waiver hanging in the balance.

Brizzi just wasn’t exactly obsessing over it.

“I had forgotten about it,” he admitted.

Then, while Brizzi was in the gym one Tuesday, a text arrived around noon informing him that his waiver had been approved. Suddenly, professional basketball could wait. Brizzi had another year of college eligibility.

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The next few weeks became a whirlwind. Buffalo didn’t have an available scholarship for him, so Brizzi needed a new home. Then came phone calls from new UNC head coach Michael Malone and associate head coach Chuck Martin.

“It was hard to turn down UNC,” Brizzi said. “It’s not every day you get a call from an NBA champion head…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/angelo-brizzi-long-college-basketball-160043527.html

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Publish date : 2026-09-30 16:00:00

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