UNC Basketball: Offer from Tar Heels was “surreal” for 2022 SG

Roy Williams and his UNC Basketball staff are starting to focus more and more on the 2022 recruiting class, setting up the big board for what they hope is a big recruiting class.

While they have two players signed in 2021, the Tar Heels are likely not going to be the option for the remaining three targets they have left. So moving on to 2022 seems like the best idea and Williams is starting to send out more offers.

Just two week ago, the Tar Heels offered two players in the 2022 class including four-star shooting guard Justin Taylor. With the offers, the Tar Heels are up to 8 but have yet to land a commitment.

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Following that offer, Taylor broke down his recruitment and where he stands after landing offers from UNC and Providence. Those two offers upped his total to 14 for the Charlottesville, Virginia as his recruitment starts to heat up. But one of those offers may have changed things.

Taylor told Sports Illustrated’s Jason Jordan that getting the call from UNC head coach Roy Williams about the offer was a “surreal” experience:

"“He was actually in Charlottesville because they were playing Virginia that next day,” Taylor said. “He said he’d been talking to my coaches and watched my games and told me how much he loved my game. Then he just offered me. It was pretty exciting.”Taylor said Williams compared him to former Tar Heel star Justin Jackson, now in his fourth year in the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder."

The shooting guard is a knock down shooter that does have similar traits to Jackson, a player that got better each year at UNC and ended his three-year career winning the ACC Player of the Year award and a national championship.

The 6-foot-6, 200-pound Taylor is ranked No. 86 overall, the No. 16 small forward and the No. 5 player in the state of Virginia per the 247 Sports recruiting rankings. Virginia, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Indiana, N.C. State, Georgetown, and Marquette are among the teams still involved with offers.

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