UNC Basketball: 5-star Tar Heels’ target ready to make his decision

Five-star UNC Basketball target Skyy Clark is set to make his decision next week and get back to a normal life

While the focus is primarily on the 2021 recruiting class for the UNC Basketball program, Roy Williams and his staff will soon find out the fate for a big five-star target in 2022.

Five-star combo guard Skyy Clark is set to make his decision on October 22nd as he’s down to four finalists in his recruitment Kentucky, North Carolina, Memphis and UCLA . But as commitment day draws closer, more and more analysts believe this is a two-team race between the North Carolina Tar Heels and Kentucky Wildcats.

Although the predictions have changed over the past few weeks going back-and-forth between the two Blue Bloods, the sense is that no one really knows exactly where Clark is heading or if he’s even made his final decision. About a month ago, Clark shut down his recruitment and opted to end interviews and talks with coaches, perhaps signaling he knows where he wants to go.

For Clark, next week will end his recruitment as he will head to a program that is more than happy to add the talented guard. He’s also ready to make that decision and get his life back to normal.

Clark’s father, Kenny, sat down with Kentucky.com ahead of Skyy’s decision to talk about the latest. That included talk on him going radio silent for a month ahead of the announcement, and Skyy wanting to be a kid again by ending this recruitment:

"“We shut everything down for the most part,” the player’s father, Kenny Clark, told the Herald-Leader over the weekend. “Just so he can think and figure out his move.”“He can be a kid again. It’s a lot on a kid who just turned 17. You have to spend most of your days on the phone with coaches, which is great — it’s a great problem to have — but it can become a little overwhelming at times.”"

I don’t know if that’s good or bad news for the Tar Heels in this race but not being able to get on campus over the past year was tough. Due to the NCAA’s restrictions, recruits have only been able to have contact with coaches through Zoom.

The other notable quote in the lengthy piece was the decision for Clark to stay in 2022 or reclassify to the 2021 class. Kenny revealed that the plans right now are to stay in 2022.

"“He just wanted to get the process over and give him a year and a half to learn the school that he goes to — offense and defense and learn the system, and prepare his game to play that way. He just wanted to get it out of the way,” Kenny Clark said. “And right now, he’s staying in ’22."

The Tar Heels will find out their fate next week and hopefully they can add their first commitment in 2022. But as of now, there might be a slight edge to Kentucky.

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