UNC Basketball: Tar Heels make cut for five-star power forward

The UNC Basketball program lands in the final list for a five-star power forward in the 2019 recruiting class

On Thursday, the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball program picked up a big commitment in the front court when five-star center Armando Bacot offered his verbal commitment.

Bacot became the second player to verbally commit to UNC, joining point guard Jeremiah Francis as UNC now has a top 10 recruiting class for 2019. Even with the addition of Bacot, the Tar Heels would still love to add at least one more talented perimeter player as well as another big front court player.

One of Roy Williams’ targets is five-star power forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.

The Kansas native is ranked No. 18 in the 247 Sports composite rankings and will be teammates with Bacot at IMG Academy this year. But could the two be teammates at UNC?

On Friday, Robinson-Earl updated his recruitment by cutting his list down to five schools according to his coach LJ Gooslby in an interview with 247 Sports recruiting analyst Evan Daniels.

The AAU coach revealed that Robinson-Earl is down to UNC, Kansas, Villanova, Notre Dame and Arizona, focusing on those schools before making a decision.

Being in the top five is a good thing for the Tar Heels as they have been in pursuit of Robinson-Earl for months. But if they want to land him, they will have to beat out Kansas who appears to the be the heavy favorites as of now.

All of the 247 Sports Crystal Ball predictions are for Kansas, giving them a 100 percent in the predictor. Robinson-Earl is a native of the state and has been to Lawrence for some unofficial visits.

While Kansas is the team to beat, don’t count out the Tar Heels. Robinson-Earl will be teammates with Bacot and UNC target Josh Green for a year at IMG Academy. The trio could make a connection and end up in Chapel Hill together.

Rivals reporter Eric Bossi talked to Robinson-Earl about each of his five teams and he had this to say about UNC:

"“Roy Williams is one of the most legendary coaches so to play for him would be amazing. He coached my dad and he’s coached a lot of great players at the three, four and five. He’s had great guards, but he’s had a lot of great bigs and they are important to him. Also the tradition, it’s North Carolina there’s not a whole lot you need to say about it.”"

It’s going to be tough pulling him away from Kansas but with it only being August and plenty of time left in the recruitment, don’t count the Tar Heels out just yet.

For more on UNC basketball recruiting targets in the 2019 class and future classes, please check back with Keeping It Heel.