UNC Basketball: Where do Tar Heels stand with 5-star small forward?

Where do the Tar Heels stand with this five-star small forward in the 2021 recruiting class? One analyst offers his insight

As North Carolina continues on during this recruiting quiet period, they have just one target left in their 2020 recruiting class. Roy Williams and his staff are hoping to land four-star guard Kerwin Walton to add to their Top 3 class in 2020 but he hasn’t stopped focusing on the 2021 class, either.

The Tar Heels do not have a commitment in the 2021 class just yet and have seven offers out to prospects.

Among them is five-star small forward Harrison Ingram out of Dallas, a recruit that UNC has begun to prioritize over the past few months. Ingram is ranked No. 17 overall by 247 Sports and is the No. 1 player in the state of Texas. He has a total of 23 offers and has already made some visits in his recruitment including to North Carolina.

But where do the Tar Heels stand?

Rivals recruiting analyst Corey Evans wrote on Ingram in his Wednesday Leftovers column and identified three teams that appear to be the favorites in the recruitment: Stanford, Purdue and North Carolina. Evans thinks Stanford might be the favorite right now but didn’t count out the Tar Heels or Boilermakers just yet.

"The others, as in Stanford. The Cardinal should be feeling mighty good right now coming off the commitment of arguably the top prospect that the program has ever landed in Ziaire Williams. Who better to replace the top-10 small forward than another blue-chip recruit in Harrison Ingram?That is exactly what the Cardinal staff has to be selling to Ingram right now. There have been whispers that a commitment is not entirely too far off and among the leaders, Stanford sits atop, though North Carolina and Purdue are also heavily involved. He has visited all three already and if the coronavirus continues to impact travel basketball for the rest of the summer, it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities that he could commit before the pandemic eases."

Ingram visited North Carolina back in February and then just a few days later officially offered him a scholarship. The Tar Heels have an immediate need on the wing in 2020 and that should carry over to 2021 where Ingram would slot in well.

UNC will lose Garrison Brooks after next season but could bring back Caleb Love, R.J. Davis, Rechon Black, Armando Bacot, Day’Ron Sharpe and Walker Kessler, plus possibly Walton if he commits. They will be setting up for a run in 2021-22 where Ingram could be a key piece at small forward.

With this quiet period, it’s unknown where Ingram’s recruitment is going as of now and Evans even hinted that there could be a commitment before this is all over. That would bode as bad news for UNC as it would appear to favor Stanford in that situation. But the longer this goes on, the better you have to feel about the Tar Heels’ chances.

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