Is Garrison Brooks the Next Brice Johnson?
In sports, we love to play the comparison game. It’s like we can’t help ourselves.
Here are a few examples:
“Oh man, have you seen Player A? He/She is absolutely the next Player B.”
“Yeah, Player A is a two-inch taller version of Player B.”
“Player A has Player B’s shooting touch mixed with Player C’s court vision.”
Of course, when a player hears those comparisons, he or she often responds with some version of,
“I don’t want to be the next Player A, I want to be the only me.”
Now that I’ve offered a not-so-glowing view of comparing players, that’s exactly what I’m going to do: compare two players, using the following question…
Is Garrison Brooks the next Brice Johnson?
In this case, I’m okay with making the comparison. Less because it’s about comparing the players, and really more so because of what it says about the coaches that are developing these young men.
Brice Johnson was at Carolina from 2012-13 through 2015-16. He entered college ranked 45th in the 247 Sports Composite rankings coming into college. He was a 6-foot-9, 210-pound power forward.
Garrison Brooks started at Carolina in the 2017-18 season. He was ranked 131st in the 247 Sports Composite Rankings. He was listed as a 6-foot-9, 215-pound power forward.
In addition to their measurables, Johnson and Brooks had quite similar freshmen seasons. Neither was dominant, but both players put up serviceable numbers.
For Johnson, he played in 36 games, starting two. He averaged 10.6 minutes, 5.4 points, shot 51.1 percent on field goals, 57.5 percent on free throws, grabbed 115 rebounds (3.2 per game), averaged 0.28 assists per game, 0.53 blocks per game, and 0.47 steals per game.
Brooks’ had a nearly identical line his freshman season: 37 games, starting 16 of them. He averaged 14.6 minutes, 4.5 points, shot 52.8 percent on field goals, 58.7 percent on free throws, corralled 128 rebounds (3.5 per game), averaged 0.54 assists, 0.3 blocks, and 0.3 steals.
The biggest differences in their freshman season were the number of games Brooks started and the rebounding breakdown. Brooks’ number of games started is attributed to being forced into the starting line-up due to Cam Johnson’s injury to start the season. While the total and average number of rebounds were rather close (+13 and +0.3 for Brooks), the difference was in the type of rebounds. Brooks had a balance between offensive (61) and defensive (67) rebounds, while Johnson had more of an imbalance (33 offensive vs. 82 defensive).
As you can see, once again, in their sophomore campaigns, Johnson and Brooks posted quite similar stat lines. Brooks had significantly more starts, both because he was forced into the starting line-up and because Johnson was behind other bigs like James Michael McAdoo. Johnson’s scoring output was higher (+66 total, + 2.4 per game), but other than that, the two players were once again essentially in lock-step.
The junior year for both players is where the numbers start to get more interesting and show some greater level of divergence. Johnson, now out from under McAdoo’s shadow, had the opportunity to start throughout the season; a season which included 38 games. Brooks continued to play in the starting line-up, but the team only managed 32 games, so his totals were down (however in some cases still higher than Johnson’s). For example, for the first time in this comparison, Brooks outpaced Johnson in scoring (+47 total points, +3.9 points per game) due in large part to Brooks being forced to shoulder much of the offensive load in his junior season. On the other side of the coin, the junior year is where Johnson first outshot Brooks both from the field and the free throw line. Even though Johnson hauled in more total rebounds (295 to 272), Brooks actually had a higher per-game average.
Let’s not bury the lede: We aren’t exactly sure what will happen with Brooks’ senior year. Will it go on as scheduled (unlikely)? Will it begin in January? Regardless of the start and number games, one has to figure that the number of games will be at least in some way affected and lessened. In so doing, some of Brooks’ ability to live up to the insane senior campaign that Johnson had will be all but impossible from a sheer numbers perspective. For example, Johnson had a full 40 games of averaging 10.4 rebounds per game, making him the first Tar Heel ever to eclipse 400 rebounds in a single season. Or how about this one? Johnson’s 678 points is the 16- most in a single season in Carolina history.
Quite frankly, Johnson upped his game all over the statistical map. For the first time in his career, he averaged over one each in assists, blocks, and steals. He grew his field goal percentage by just shy of five percent and his free throw percentage by nearly 11 percentage points.
All-in-all, Brice Johnson put up one of the best single seasons in Carolina history in 2015-16. Will Garrison Brooks be able to match that output in his own senior season? The answer remains to be seen.
One unfortunate observation is that with games likely to be suspended till January, Brooks will miss out on a good number of games, and therefore not have the chance to live up to Johnson’s raw numbers.
However, Brooks absolutely has the ability to match (or come close to) Johnson in per game averages. 10.4 rebounds per game is tough. How can Brooks live up to that with the insane frontcourt he has around him? Johnson didn’t have quite the same depth of frontcourt to deal with in Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks, Joel James, and at times Justin Jackson, but it certainly wasn’t like he was alone out there grabbing all the rebounds.
So back to our original question: Can Garrison Brooks be the next Brice Johnson? It seems that the answer is both yes and no.
Yes, in that Brooks has enjoyed a similar progression to Johnson’s over the course of his Carolina career. This is a credit to all their coaches and mentors who are continually pouring into the young men.
No, in that with a shortened season, it’s likely Brooks won’t have the number of games necessary in terms of “raw” statistics to catch up with or surpass Johnson’s marks.
Also no, in that no other Tar Heel in the history of Carolina basketball has ever grabbed 400 rebounds.
One other thing to keep in mind in this comparison is that Brooks started off his freshman season much further down the recruiting rankings than did Johnson.
Is Garrison Brooks the Next Brice Johnson?
Time will tell. But we can say with absolute certainty, both players have grown by leaps and bounds since they enrolled in college. And do you know who we have to thank for that? Roy Williams and the rest of the coaching staff.
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