UNC Basketball: 5-star target trending away from Tar Heels?

This 5-star UNC basketball target may not venture out of his home state, leaving the Tar Heels on the outside looking in.

The North Carolina Tar Heels were quick to get on the board with the recruiting class of 2020, nabbing a commitment from 5-star center Day’Ron Sharpe more than a year ago. In the 13 months since, though, the Tar Heels have yet to get a commitment from another player in the class, though they’re got scholarship offers out to 15 other prospects.

One of those prospects, Bryce Thompson, is a 5-star shooting guard that the Tar Heels have put a fair amount of time and effort into. Despite their numerous meetings with Thompson and trips to see him, it looks like the top-20 prospect from Tulsa, Oklahoma may be leaning in a different direction.

Rivals recruiting analyst Corey Evans talked recently about the Thompson recruitment, highlighting the teams currently in the mix, and the likeliest places for the rising senior to land.

"“. . . Bryce Thompson is ready to cut his school list in the coming weeks, and I would be surprised to see St. John’son it,” Evans writes. “Who I do expect to make it? Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, with maybe another one or two thrown in for good measure.Thompson has a few longstanding connections, thanks to his father’s ties with staff members at Kansas, MSU and UNC. However, I do not see Thompson going too far away from home but rather sticking it out in the South. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are two programs that sit in a great spot with him, and if he does decide to leave his state I think it would be for Kansas, a program that employs Bill Self, who coached his father, Rod Thompson, for one season at Tulsa.”"

So, while Evans likes the connections that Thompson has to coaches at Kansas, Michigan State and North Carolina, he feels like the trio of programs are far less likely to win a commitment than in-state schools Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. If he does leave the state of Oklahoma, however, it’s Kansas that Evans sees getting Thompson’s commitment.

Thompson’s Crystal Ball currently favors Oklahoma with 50 percent of the vote. Kansas is in second-place with 33 percent, and Oklahoma State is in third with 17 percent.

Stick with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the Bryce Thompson recruitment, including his upcoming list of finalists, and everything UNC basketball.