UNC Basketball: 10 recruits UNC fans wish the Tar Heels had signed

Kevin Knox

Kevin Knox was a player that Roy Williams put a lot of time and effort into before his commitment to Kentucky was announced in the spring of 2017. In fact, Williams spent the better part of two years recruiting the Tampa, Florida native before he pledged to the Wildcats over Duke and North Carolina, both of which were seen by many as the favorites in his recruitment leading up to the time of his announcement on Twitter.

Knox’s commitment to Kentucky helped John Calipari and the Wildcats to the top-ranked recruiting class in the SEC for the 10th consecutive season. It also marked the 10th time in a row that Kentucky finished a recruiting cycle in the top-2 nationally — finishing in first-place seven times.

https://twitter.com/KevKnox/status/861002791980019712

Was Knox’s season so amazing that we’re still talking about it today? Certainly not. His averages of 15.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game weren’t so impressive that he automatically would’ve turned the Tar Heels into a national title contender that season. He didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, either, connecting on less than 45 percent of his shots from the floor and 34.1 percent of his attempts from downtown.

He would have, however, been a nice addition to the Tar Heels’ thin front court in 2018 that featured an undersized Luke Maye and a handful of inexperienced freshmen bigs. It was that front court that could’ve used a 6-foot-9, 205-pound Knox to help the Tar Heels battle against a much bigger Texas A&M squad that throttled North Carolina in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.