UNC Basketball: 4 Tar Heels make NC High School All-Decade Team

The UNC Basketball program had four former players named to the North Carolina High School All-Decade Team by WRAL

The calendar has officially flipped over to 2020 and a new decade has begun. While the North Carolina Tar Heels are off to a struggling start this season, the last decade provided some awesome memories both on and off the court.

We already released our All-Decade Team for the 2010s, filled with several talented players recruited by Roy Williams and his staff.

This past decade showed us what those players could do on the court at the college level but what about at the High School level? WRAL’s High School OT released their All-Decade Team for North Carolina High School Boy’s Basketball and the Tar Heels were well-represented on the list.

The state of North Carolina has produced some very talented players over the years, including this past decade and the Tar Heels were able to grab their fair-share of in-state recruits. But only four of them were named to this team.

Representing UNC on the All-Decade team was:

• Coby White (Greenfield class of 2018)
• Theo Pinson (Oak Ridge/Wesleyan Christian class of 2014)
• Isaiah Hicks (Body of Christ/J.F. Webb Class of 2013)
• Kennedy Meeks (West Charlotte Class of 2011)

In addition to UNC having four of the 10 players on the team, White was also named the Most Valuable Player of the Decade.The one-and-done UNC recruit broke the NCISAA scoring record, finishing his career with 3,573 points in his four years.

Here is what HS Overtime wrote on White’s performance over the four years:

"White broke a record that seemed unbreakable, becoming the all-time leading scorer and NCISAA record holder with 3,573 points (and no, he didn’t play varsity as an eighth or seventh grader even though NCISAA schools allow for it), with 1,069 of them coming as a junior in which he averaged around 31. White was a phenomenon his senior year, as the record kept getting closer and closer within reach. He was named N.C.’s Mr. Basketball and a McDonald’s All-American, became Team USA’s leading scorer at the FIBA Americas U18 tournament, nearly averaged a triple-double during his senior year (31-10-8), broke the longtime John Wall Holiday Invitational scoring cored with 119 points in three games, and was twice named Gatorade Player of the Year. Yet, somehow, White wasn’t as appreciated by recruiting analysts as other in-state players of this decade. They kept him at No. 26 in the national rankings despite his seemingly routine 30-point showings and weekly 40-point outbursts."

You can read the full quote on White and the rest of the All-Decade Team here. 

As for the new decade, UNC currently has five players committed to their 2020 class which ranks No. 3 overall per 247 Sports. Among them is in-state recruit Day’Ron Sharpe who played at South Central for the first three seasons before transferring out to Montverde in Florida. We could very well see him on the list for the next decade.

For more on UNC Basketball recruiting, please check back with Keeping It Heel.