UNC Basketball: What the Walker Kessler commitment means for North Carolina

What 5-star center Walker Kessler’s commitment means for UNC basketball, and the class of 2020

Roy Williams and the North Carolina basketball program got some good news late Sunday night when 5-star class of 2020 prospect Walker Kessler committed to the Tar Heels.

The 7-foot, 235-pound center had a list of finalists that included Auburn, Duke, Gonzaga and Michigan. And even though North Carolina made it to Kessler’s final list of five teams, almost nobody gave the Tar Heels a shot at getting his commitment. It was Duke, by all accounts, that seemed to have a leg up in Kessler’s recruitment.

In fact, 64 percent of votes in Kessler’s 247Sports Crystal Ball were in favor of Duke, while North Carolina had just 18 percent. With Kessler off the board, the Blue Devils’ search for an elite front court player in the class of 2020 continues. They do, however, have pledges from two 5-star recruits in the class in small forward Jalen Johnson and point guard Jeremy Roach.

With Kessler now in the fold at North Carolina, the Tar Heels have commitments from two 5-star bigs — top-20 center Day’Ron Sharpe is the other — and they’ll join a UNC roster that could boast a senior Garrison Brooks and a second-year Armando Bacot. That’s a front court that garnered 19 out of a possible 20 stars coming out of high school, Brooks being the only one that didn’t achieve 5-star status before joining the Tar Heels.

His progression since coming to Chapel Hill, though, particularly as a defender, has been terrific. It wouldn’t be a shock to see Brooks put together an all-conference caliber season as a junior, and take a look at entering the NBA Draft next year. And just as North Carolina fans saw last season with UNC freshmen Coby White and Nassir Little, a terrific rookie campaign could propel Bacot to the 2020 NBA Draft, too.

It’s my feeling, however, that both Brooks and Bacot are more likely to return to campus next season — joining newcomers Kessler and Sharpe — forming what could be the best front court in college basketball. If that holds true, there’s almost no question that the Tar Heels will have one of the biggest lineups in the nation, what with six players that stand at least 6-feet-10-inches tall.

And what does Kessler’s commitment to North Carolina mean for the Tar Heels’ remaining targets in the class of 2020? Well, it almost definitely means that the Tar Heels are out on the Greg Brown sweepstakes. Brown seems to be leaning toward a commitment to Texas anyway, but a player of his caliber isn’t going to want to sacrifice substantial minutes on a stacked UNC roster to begin with.

The same can be said for Isaiah Todd, the talented Raleigh, North Carolina native that may very well end up at Kentucky. For what it’s worth, Todd is a player that I expect to grace college basketball for just one year, while I believe that Kessler may hang around for multiple seasons. Prior Lake power forward Dawson Garcia and DeMatha Catholic center Hunter Dickinson are also going to look elsewhere now, if they weren’t already. Both players bring tremendous size, particularly 7-foot-2-inch, 255-pound Dickinson, but opportunities for playing time will be much more affluent with their other finalists.

The focus of the UNC coaching staff will almost undoubtedly turn to the back court, where the Tar Heels could use a shooting guard and a wing. It’s point guard, though, that the program needs more than any other position. Much like former star freshman Coby White left the Tar Heels after just one season, No. 1-ranked point guard Cole Anthony is expected to do the same thing in 2020. He’ll be a surefire lottery pick in the NBA Draft, and a good season in Chapel Hill this year will get him consideration for the top pick.

So it’s 5-star guards Cade Cunningham and Caleb Love that will be at the forefront of the Tar Heels’ recruiting efforts moving forward. Both are talented players capable of running the high-octane UNC offense that we’ve all become so accustomed to seeing. If the Tar Heels aren’t able to sign either, it puts Williams and his coaching staff in a tough position next season, and one that will require a current roster player to step into a starting role, or a less recruited 2020 prospect — like Archbishop Stepinac’s R.J. Davis — to come in and make an immediate impact.

Ziaire Williams, Earl Timberlake and Bryce Thompson are also names that UNC fans are sure to hear more of in the coming months. Of the three top-30 prospects, Williams appears to be the most likely to join the fold in Chapel Hill, with Timberlake’s recruitment still pretty cloudy and Thompson seemingly headed somewhere other than North Carolina.

Some combination of Cunningham, Love, Williams, Timberlake and Thompson could not only fill all of the Tar Heels’ needs for next season, but potentially give them the top recruiting class in the nation. There’s still time left in each of their recruitments, and as we saw with Kessler on Sunday night, anything can happen.

Stick with Keeping It Heel for more on the Walker Kessler commitment, the Tar Heels’ 2020 recruiting class and everything UNC basketball.