UNC Basketball: Tar Heels’ 2020 recruiting class could look a lot like this

Jalen Green

Jalen Green is, simply put, one of the best high school basketball players in the nation.

That’s evidenced by his No. 3 ranking in the 247Sports Composite, mere decimal points behind the class’s consensus No. 1 prospect, Evan Mobley, and rising star Cade Cunningham, who’s now ranked second among players in the class of 2020.

Green hasn’t been outside of the top-10 since rankings for the class of 2020 were released in the summer of 2017. His lowest ranking was eighth, and that was nearly two years ago. In the time since, he’s been no lower than third, and spent several months at No. 1 last year.

Green is known for his tremendous athleticism and versatility on the offensive end of the court. He can hit shots from all over the floor, and defenses have to respect him as a threat from three-point range. He’s a terrific slasher, and works well going either way with the ball in his hands. He can put up highlight reel dunks when he’s finishing above the rim. He’s also a good ball handler and distributor.

Despite the fact that he could put on a little more weight and strength, he’s got great length for a guard that should help him play pesky defense at the collegiate level. He’s also a very good rebounder for his position, and gets up and down the court really well.

The 5-star combo guard is already holding on to 20 scholarship offers, including ones from Arizona, Cincinnati, Florida State, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Memphis, Oregon, UCLA, USC and Villanova. North Carolina recently jumped in on his recruitment, too, and Green talked about that in an interview with 247Sports recruiting analyst Evan Daniels.

"“North Carolina just came in contact with me, so I’m hoping the offer will come too,” Green said. “He [Hubert Davis] was talking about how he loves the way I play. He contacted me in Colorado Springs. He said he loved the way I played out there and he wants to get in touch and build a relationship.”"

Green has stated that he plans to take more visits before eliminating schools from his list, and eventually making a decision. He’s already visited Florida State and Memphis, and mentioned Oregon and Alabama as two places he hopes to visit in the near future.

There isn’t a great feel for what direction Green is leaning at this point, if at all, but Penny Hardaway and the Memphis Tigers are believed to be in a pretty good position with the talented guard. They currently lead Green’s Crystal Ball with 80 percent of the vote. Don’t count out the Kentucky Wildcats, though, as head coach John Calipari has put in a lot of work with Green, and developed a good relationship in the process.