Why Wasn’t UNC Represented During Andrew Wiggins Tournament in Charlotte?
By Matt Hamm
Andrew Wiggins may be the best prep basketball prospect since LeBron James and could make an impact on the college game that we haven’t seen since the days of Kevin Durant. The 6-8 stud from Canada recently reclassified from the 2014 to the 2013 class and has a short list of potential college programs that have a chance of winning the recruiting lottery and landing him and the North Carolina Tar Heels are one of them.
Wiggins had a tournament in Charlotte North Carolina over the Thanksgiving Day break from school presenting a perfect opportunity for UNC to show him some love and visit with him, so why weren’t any representatives in attendance? Florida State Seminoles head coach Leonard Hamilton was in attendance on Friday night to watch Wiggins dazzle the crowd, Michael Jordan was there to see his nephew who was also competing in the tournament, so why wasn’t Roy Williams or at least one of his assistants?
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/DaveTelep/status/272455551202492417″]
Although many point to FSU and Kentucky as the favorites to land Wiggins, his parents both attended FSU and UK has been on top of his recruiting process since the beginning, both Wiggins and his high school head coach have maintained that his recruiting process is wide open. Wiggins also stated that he wanted more programs to go after him and after Roy flew into see him workout and visited with him in West Virginia recently you would think more of an effort would be made when he’s in nearby Charlotte right?
I agree it’s a little odd that the Tar Heels weren’t represented, especially considering that Wiggins is the only prospect with an open offer from Carolina left in the 2013 class, one without a commit from a perimeter player yet. But everyone must keep in mind that in recruiting the only ones who know the whole story are the program, the prospect, his parents and most of the time his coach.
UNC is coming off an exhausting road trip in which they took a pit stop in California before heading to Maui and only have a short amount of time home before they head to Indiana to face the #1 ranked Hoosiers. Recruiting is important, but coaches also have to well coach the team they have this year. Nobody knows if Roy or someone on staff called and talked to him, something I think is pretty likely considering Wiggins is said to very early in the process and won’t sign until spring.
It’s very likely that Wiggins and those close to him were well aware that Carolina wouldn’t be in attendance and it’s not like that will be the last opportunity to visit with the young star. Wiggins is just now beginning the process of setting up official visits and you can be sure one of those visits will be to Chapel Hill. UNC has been in on his recruiting a lot longer than many realize. Over the summer his high school coach stated that he was only hearing from three coaches, Hamilton, Calipari and Roy and verified that the star did in fact have an offer from UNC and that the offer had been made over a year ago. Personally, I’m sick of hearing that UK is in the lead because they are UK, how about UNC is right in the mix because they are UNC and Roy Williams is Roy Williams?