UNC Basketball: Roy Williams keeping tabs on five-star center

The UNC Basketball program has checked in again on five-star center Walker Kessler as they watched him over the weekend

Things have been pretty quiet in the recruitment for five-star center Walker Kessler on the North Carolina front. The Tar Heels are still in the running for the 2020 center and over the weekend, UNC kept tabs on his play at the  Adidas Summer Championship.

On Sunday, Williams was one of the coaches in attendance to watch Kessler play for Game Elite in Birmingham, Alabama as the open recruiting period came to a close.

The 7-foot prospect drew a crowd of head coaches from big programs including UNC, Gonzaga, Auburn and assistant coaches from Michigan.

Kessler is ranked as the No. 19 overall prospect per the Rivals recruiting rankings and the No. 4 center in his class. The Georgia product has been on UNC’s radar for a while now as Williams has made visits in the past to watch him play.

As it stands now, Kessler has 23 offers and has been on four official visits. He has been to Duke, Auburn, Virginia, Vanderbilt and Michigan so far in his recruitment but with the July AAU sessions wrapping up, he could take some more this Summer.

With both UNC and Duke battling it out in a matchup of Blue Bloods, Gonzaga has also entered the race as of late. Mark Few was one of the coaches mentioned above that watched him and the Zags could be a dark horse in his recruitment.

Duke does lead the 247 Sports Crystal Ball predictor, earning 7 of the 10 predictions so far but there is a long way to go in his recruitment. Kessler did mention a back in June that he does want to take more visits including one to every program on his final list. If that remains true, we should see him on campus in the coming months.

For more on Kessler and other UNC Basketball recruiting targets, please check back with Keeping It Heel.