UNC Basketball: Tar Heels pick up FutureCast predictions for TWO 5-stars
The UNC basketball program has picked up Rivals FutureCast predictions on not one, but two 5-star prospects from the class of 2022.
Roy Williams and the North Carolina Tar Heels have all but wrapped up their efforts with 2021 recruiting cycle, one in which they’ve gotten commitments from just two prospects — 4-star small forward Dontrez Styles and 4-star shooting guard D’Marco Dunn. Those two prospects, however, may be all that the Tar Heels need to fill in the gaps next season.
With Styles and Dunn already in tow, and joining of group of current Tar Heels that may, in large part, stick around the college game for another year, North Carolina should be in pretty good shape next season. But by the fall of 2022, they’ll undoubtedly need a fresh crop of talent to replenish a depleted roster.
Related Story. Are things falling apart for Duke?. light
By then, now-senior Garrison Brooks will surely be gone, even if he accepts an additional year of eligibility for the 2021-22 season that was granted by the NCAA due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on winter sport student-athletes. Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe are both likely to be gone by then, and that’s if they don’t go ahead and bolt the college ranks for the NBA after this season. Similarly, freshman point guard Caleb Love might return for a sophomore season in Chapel Hill, but it’s highly unlikely he sticks around longer than that. Leaky Black will also be gone, as he is set to graduate in the spring of 2022.
That’s why Williams and his coaching staff have gone all-in on the class of 2022, and hope to secure a group of recruits that will keep the program competitive for the foreseeable future. They’ve already extended scholarship offers to eight players in the class, and have their sights set on a handful more. Among those eight players currently holding a UNC offer are Jaden Bradley and Jarace Walker, a pair of 5-star recruits that could not only keep the Tar Heels competitive moving forward, but put them in position to win on a national level.
The Tar Heels recently picked up Rivals FutureCast predictions for both Bradley and Walker, as recruiting analyst Jamie Shaw pegged UNC as the eventual landing spot for the dynamic duo. It was the first prediction in Walker’s FutureCast, and the third in Bradley’s — his received two votes for Kentucky in early January.
It’s obviously early, and nobody has a real good idea where either of the two elite prospects will end up, but it’s definitely a good sign for the Tar Heels that they appear to be squarely in the running for a pair of the class’s top players.
Next. Did Cole Anthony throw shade at the Duke Blue Devils?. dark
Check back with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the Tar Heels’ 2022 recruiting class, and everything UNC basketball.