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

Brandon Ingram

Brandon Ingram. Boy, was that ever a heated recruiting battle between college basketball’s most bitter rivals.

It was a blue blood affair, to say the least, with a list of finalists composed of Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina. It was Duke and North Carolina, though, that were considered the front-runners for an Ingram commitment from pretty early on.

Tar Heel fans were hopeful that the Kinston, North Carolina native would follow in the footsteps of former UNC standouts Jerry Stackhouse and Reggie Bullock, who’d both attended Kinston High School prior to their stints in Chapel Hill. And Roy Williams recruited the sensational in-state talent as hard as any he had in recent years. Williams and his coaching staff were all-in on Ingram, making countless visits and phone calls over a two-year period.

Things were looking up for the Tar Heels for quite a while, but then the tide started to change. It began looking more and more like the 5-star wing — ranked third in the nation among 2015 recruits — would end up in a darker shade of blue.

And he did. Ingram ultimately chose the Blue Devils, and spent his one season of college hoops in Durham, just eight miles down the road from their Tobacco Road rivals.

Ingram had a good season for the Blue Devils, averaging 17.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, two assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.1 steals per game. He shot 41 percent from three-point range on the season, and played nearly 35 minutes per game.

Missing on Ingram didn’t seem to hurt the Tar Heels too much, though, considering they made it to the final Monday night of the college basketball season. The Tar Heels won 33 games and an ACC title before losing to Villanova in the National Championship game on a last-second three-point shot from Kris Jenkins. The Blue Devils, on the other hand, won just 25 games, had a sixth-place finish in the ACC, and lost to the fifth-seeded Oregon Ducks in the Sweet 16.