Collegiate Career
Alongside Sean May, Raymond Felton, and David Noel, McCants joined a stellar recruiting class at UNC for the 2002–2003 season, coached by Matt Doherty. In his freshman year, McCants led the Tar Heels in scoring with 17.5 points per game, and led them to a third round loss to Georgetown in the National Invitational Tournament. He was voted to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) rookie team.
In the 2003–2004 season, McCants led the ACC in scoring with 20 points per game. With that effort, McCants helped lead UNC back into the NCAA Tournament with a sixth ranking, where they would lose in the second round to number three ranked Texas. He was the leading vote-getter on the All-ACC First Team as a sophomore, and was named a Second Team All-American.
With freshman Marvin Williams joining the squad for the 2004–2005, the junior class led by preseason Wooden Award candidates in McCants, May, and Felton gave UNC a high ranking in all preseason polls and the team was seen as one of the favorites to win the NCAA Tournament. After going 33–4 and winning the ACC regular season, McCants' 16.4 points per game helped secure UNC one of the four number one seeds in the NCAA Tournament. UNC cruised to the championship game, where McCants helped the Tar Heels defeat the Illinois Fighting Illini 75–70.
McCants' three years at Chapel Hill were not without controversy. In an interview for a local television station, McCants compared UNC to a prison, stating, "You're not allowed to say certain things, but once you get out of jail, you're free. (I'm) in my sentence, and I'm doing my time".
McCants scored 1721 points in his career at North Carolina and made 221 career three-point field goals.
Read more about this topic: Rashad McCants
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“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)