UNC Basketball: Five-star target sets decision date, includes Tar Heels in top 3

The race for a five-star UNC Basketball recruiting target will come to an end this weekend.

Combo guard Zion Cruz is ready to make a decision just a few weeks after postponing his original announcement date. Now, the New Jersey prospect is ready to end his recruitment and commit to a school, setting a decision date of Sunday, September 5th.

Cruz took to his Instagram story to announce that he is setting a date for his decision and in addition to that, he’s “officially” cut his list down to three schools: Auburn, Creighton and North Carolina.

The five-star recruit received an offer from North Carolina this Summer as Hubert Davis and his staff officially entered the race. There were even talks that Cruz was in the process of setting up a visit to Chapel Hill and potentially getting to know more about the program.

But that never happened, nor did he take a visit to Creighton in his recruitment.

Going into Sunday, UNC fans really shouldn’t expect to be surprised. Not only does Auburn hold the Crystal Ball predictions on 247Sports but they are the only school of the three that he’s visited in his recruitment. Auburn appeared to be the favorite a few weeks back when he was set to decide, and that remains the same going into this weekend.

The Tar Heels do have a three-man class in the 2022 cycle but over the past few weeks, their options have dwindled significantly.

Right now, the two realistic targets for UNC are Cam Whitmore and Tyler Nickel. Whitmore was recently on campus to visit and Nickel is set to visit next weekend. We should have decisions from both recruits sometime soon and that likely will put a wrap to Davis’ first recruiting class in charge.

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