UNC Basketball makes cut for four-star forward as he sets his decision date

The UNC Basketball program will soon find out their fate for a big four-star recruiting target in the 2022 class. But before that happens, they received some good news on Tuesday morning.

Four-star forward Tyler Nickel made two big updates to his recruitment on Tuesday, not only cutting his list down to five but setting his date for when he will announce. The Elkton, Virginia native announced that he will be focusing on Butler, Iowa, LSU, UNC, and Virginia Tech moving forward trimming that list of 18 offers down to a top 5.

Nickel told 247Sports’ DuShawn London that he’s ready to move on with those programs and is going to make his decision sometime in October.

The 6-foot-8-inch, 210-pound Nickel is ranked No. 79 overall, No. 22 small forward and the No. 4 player in the state of Virginia per the 247Sports composite rankings. He’s a player that has been on UNC’s target for a while now and the interest appears to be mutual between the two sides.

Nickel has set official visits to all five schools and will be on UNC’s campus September 10-12 with stops to Butler (August 27-29), Virginia Tech (September 3-5), Iowa (September 16-19) and LSU (TBD).

In addition to his list, Nickel broke down what he likes best about all five programs on his top 5 including the Tar Heels:

"“I feel like I have a really good relationship with Coach (Hubert) Davis. He’s made it very clear to me how important I am to them and what I would bring to the table. He’s also built a good relationship with my family and I. He feels like someone you can trust the more and more you talk to him.”“They’ve got a lot of good pieces there now but one thing they said they need now is a scoring wing. That’s what I bring to the table and that’s probably the most notable thing about my game. The fact that it’s a need for them gives me a good opportunity for me to come in and be that.”"

The Tar Heels currently have three players committed to the 2022 class which is among the best in the nation right now. But ideally, Hubert Davis and his staff would love to add one more for sure and potentially two more recruits. Nickel is the only target really scheduled to announce between now and October, possibly giving him the edge to jump into UNC’s class before others do.

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