UNC Basketball: Where Tar Heel commits stand in latest ESPN 100
The UNC basketball program has two of ESPN’s top 100 players in the class of 2022.
The North Carolina Tar Heels have put together a terrific offseason following the surprise retirement of former head coach Roy Williams. Much of the credit for that is due to their first-year head coach who hit the ground running after being elevated from the assistant position he’d held for the past nine years.
Since taking the program over in the first week of April, Hubert Davis managed to get commitments from three highly regarded transfers in Dawson Garcia, Brady Manek and Justin McKoy. Those three will provide immediate depth and production for a UNC squad that had a mass exodus of front court players at the conclusion of the 2020-21 season. Not only that, but these players are bringing the ability to knock down shots from three-point range, which will stretch the floor out for returning junior center Armando Bacot.
In addition to that, Davis secured commitments from three prospects in the class of 2022, including a pair of consensus top-50 players in Jalen Washington and Seth Trimble, as well as a rising big man and likely four-year student-athlete in 6-foot-9, 245-pound center Will Shaver.
And although the latter — a three-star Birmingham, Alabama native that ranks 136th overall in the 247Sports Composite — sits outside of the top 100 rankings pretty much across the board, and doesn’t project to be an immediate difference-maker in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels’ other two commits should figure into the mix as soon as they get on campus.
Their rankings in the latest ESPN 100 reflect that, with Washington coming in at No. 22, and Trimble sitting 22 spots back at 44th. North Carolina joins Duke, Kansas and Oregon as programs with multiple recruits inside the ESPN 100 top 50. The Blue Devils actually have three, and with the way things are shaping up on the recruiting trail, the Kentucky Wildcats may have that many inside the top 20 before long.
The Tar Heels could earn commitments from a couple more players before the dust settles, as they’re into the late stages of both the Cam Whitmore and Tyler Nickel recruitments.
Next. Tar Heels extend offer to intriguing prospect. dark
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