Leslie McDonald Tears ACL in NC Pro-Am Game

Rumors first broke yesterday on Twitter that Leslie McDonald had been injured at an NC Pro-Am summer league game in Durham, but McDonald soon quashed it by tweeting that he was fine. This turns out not to be the case, as his father has now told Gary Parrish that the rising junior guard has torn his ACL.  McDonald was UNC's best three-point shooter last season, and it's unlikely he'll be able to play next season. The orthopedic folks at UNC have a lot of experience with knees, so he's in good hands.

There seems to be a lot of people expecting Carolina fans to be outraged over this, and say McDonald shouldn't have been playing summer league ball. I haven't seen anyone actually make that argument, however. The fact is, everyone playing college basketball is going to be out on a court somewhere all summer, and ACL injuries often occur with just a fluke misstep. This could have happened driving against his own shadow on empty asphalt court in the middle of nowhere; instead, it happened in a league where most of North Carolina's top talent spends July.

As for where this leaves UNC in 2012, it's hard to say. Shooting guard is probably the position where UNC has the least depth outside of the point. But Reggie Bullock should be back to form, P.J. Hairston (also playing in the Pro-Am) giving the Heels two reliable outside threats, plus whatever improvement in his shooting game Kendall Marshall happens to make over the summer.

Marshall, in case you're curious is not playing in the summer league. John Henson, Harrison Barnes, Dexter Strickland, Justin Watts and James McAdoo are, along with Seth Curry, Tyler Thorton and all three Plumlees for Duke.