UNC Basketball: Four-star recruit leaning toward ACC rival?

Is a four-star UNC basketball target leaning toward another program in the Atlantic Coast Conference?

First-year head coach Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels got off to a hot start on the recruiting trail this offseason when they got commitments from three highly thought of transfer players — Dawson Garcia, Brady Manek and Justin McKoy — and a trio of 2022 prospects that, at one point, had their class ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Since then, they seem to have come back down to earth a bit, missing on several of their other targets, and looking like they may be on the outs with a few others. Included in the latter is Tyler Nickel, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound small forward that has the Tar Heels listed as one of five finalists along with Butler, Iowa, LSU and Virginia Tech.

Things in the Nickel recruitment remained pretty quiet for a while, with nobody seemingly having much insight into where he might end up next year. Lately, though, there is a program that has been picking up momentum in his recruitment, as a handful of predictions across multiple recruiting channels have a current consensus on the matter. Albeit one of the two ACC schools on Nickel’s list, it’s not that one that people would most commonly think.

https://twitter.com/abg_tnick5/status/1421269607990677507

Rather than the Tar Heels, who currently have to No. 4 haul in the class of 2022, it’s the Virginia Tech Hokies that insiders and analysts on both Rivals and 247Sports believe that the rising wing from East Rockingham High School will end up with. They could certainly use a player of Nickel’s caliber and skill set, particularly since they have just one pledge — that from three-star combo guard MJ Collins.

The Tar Heels, on the other hand, would certainly benefit from a commitment from the top 100 wing, as they’ve already missed on a few and are yet to nab one to this point. Their three-man class includes two bigs and a point guard, so being able to reel in a high-level wing talent like Nickel, who also projects as a multiple-year student athlete, would both balance next year’s freshman class and equip them with a player that could be a terrific perimeter shooter and slasher for years to come.

The Tar Heels may have an either-or situation on hand with the likes of Nickel and fellow 2022 wing Cam Whitmore. Both have UNC among their short list of finalists, and both have been recruited heavily by the Tar Heels over the past few months. With Whitmore looking more and more like an eventual Villanova commit, Nickel becomes that much more important for North Carolina. But again, that’s no slam dunk for Davis and his coaching staff, as the Elkton, Virginia native now has two Crystal Ball predictions — both with high confidence — and two FutureCast predictions favoring the Hokies.

It’s not over until it’s over, but things are looking dicey right now, and the Tar Heels could end up seeing themselves on the outside looking in for both of the aforementioned players — something they’ve grown quite accustomed to at the wing position over the last several years.

Check back with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the Tyler Nickel recruitment, and everything on the UNC basketball program.