UNC Basketball: Jalen Wilson to North Carolina? Don’t hold your breath.

Roy Williams and the UNC basketball program are hoping for one final commitment from the class of 2019, but they’re not likely to get it from top-50 prospect Jalen Wilson.

After rallying in the months of April and May to sign one of the nation’s 10 best recruiting hauls, Roy Williams and the North Carolina Tar Heels hoped to add one final piece to their incoming freshman class.

Unfortunately, for Williams, the Tar Heels and UNC fans, alike, it probably won’t happen.

They missed on 5-star combo guard R.J. Hampton — who they were supposedly in the running for — but then so did every other program, including Kansas, who was considered the heavy favorite to land his commitment before he spurned college hoops for a year of professional basketball overseas.

At that point, their hopes came down to top-50 class of 2019 prospect Jalen Wilson, a 6-foot-8, 215-pound small forward out of Guyer High School in Denton, Texas. Wilson — the final uncommitted 4-star prospect in the class — pledged to Michigan in May of 2018, but decommitted after longtime Wolverines head coach John Beilein left Ann Arbor for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

Upon receiving his release from his national letter of intent to the school, Wilson reopened his recruitment and was immediately targeted by a number of big name programs. Kansas and North Carolina quickly rose to the top of Wilson’s list, but so, too, did the Wolverines, thanks to the offseason hire of former Michigan star and 18-year NBA veteran Juwan Howard.

Despite the involvement of Howard and the Wolverines in Wilson’s recruitment, Michigan never seemed to get enough traction with the talented wing, seemingly getting involved too late to overtake the blue bloods making a hard push for him. All of the buzz surrounding Wilson’s recruitment shifted to the Jayhawks and Tar Heels — both of whom got official visits from Wilson this time around — and was seen by many as a neck and neck race between the two.

More recently, though, and to the dismay of North Carolina fans, that buzz has again shifted. Now, it’s the Jayhawks who look to be a runaway winner in the Wilson sweepstakes.

An overwhelming amount of experts and analysts on 247Sports who have submitted their predictions to Wilson’s Crystal Ball are in favor of Kansas. That includes the site’s Director of Basketball Recruiting, Evan Daniels, who recently changed his prediction from its previous “undecided” status.

Crazier things have happened, and it’s never over until it’s over, but Wilson appears to be headed to Lawrence, Kansas in the fall, so don’t be surprised if it’s a crimson and blue hat that Wilson puts on today, or a Jayhawks t-shirt that he unveils.

With the No. 9 recruiting class in college basketball, though — a class that includes one of the most dynamic guards in recent history in Cole Anthony — along with 5-star big man Armando Bacot and 4-star guard Anthony Harris, as well as two of the nation’s best graduate transfers that will also be joining the mix in 2019, the Tar Heels will be just fine.

Stick with Keeping It Heel for complete coverage of the Jalen Wilson announcement that’s set for 2:00 p.m. CST Wednesday afternoon, and everything UNC basketball.