Dontrez Styles believes he ‘never got the opportunity’ at UNC
Former North Carolina Tar Heels’ forward Dontrez Styles spent another offseason in the transfer portal after just a year with Georgetown. This time he’s returning back to his home state of North Carolina as he committed to NC State.
The Wolfpack were a team that was involved in his first recruitment before he picked the Tar Heels. After his commitment, he spoke to Pack Pride about his time at UNC and how he’s on the other side of the rivalry now.
During the interview, he did say something very interesting about his time with the Tar Heels, hinting that he never really got a good opportunity to earn some playing time.
“I have to thank coach [Ed] Cooley for giving me the opportunity to go out there and get my confidence back,” Styles said in the interview. “I was struggling with that because I didn’t play a lot at Carolina and never got the opportunity. I’m just way more confident in my game. Playing a lot of minutes was the main thing for me.”
In the two seasons Styles played at North Carolina, he came off the bench and averaged 5.8 minutes per game in 2021-22 and then 5.9 minutes per game in 2022-23. He did appear in 30 games in that season UNC went to the Final Four and hit a big shot against Baylor to help UNC pull off the upset.
But he was behind players on a loaded roster and really couldn’t find his way into the rotation.
Styles will now see UNC twice a season with his new program and he figures to be a starter for the Wolfpack right away.
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