UNC Basketball: Tar Heels add to 2022 class with four-star recruit Nickel

Hubert Davis and the UNC basketball program secured a commitment from four-star small forward Tyler Nickel on Wednesday.

The North Carolina Tar Heels got their fourth commitment from the class of 2022 on Wednesday afternoon when four-star small forward Tyler Nickel announced his long-awaited college decision. Nickel, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound senior at East Rockingham High School, joins West Side High School’s Jalen Washington, Menomonee Falls standout Seth Trimble and Oak Mountain’s Will Shaver.

By most accounts, Nickel is considered a four-star recruit and among the top 80-to-90 prospects in the country. Only Rivals, who ranks Nickel 134th overall and 38th at the small forward position, seems to think otherwise. 247Sports and ESPN both have him ranked similarly at 79th and 86th, respectively, which puts four stars next to his name. His criminally low ranking on Rivals puts him in three-star status.

Nickel had nearly 20 scholarship offers prior to whittling down his list of schools to just five — Butler, Iowa, LSU, North Carolina and Virginia Tech. A number of recruiting analysts and insiders felt that the Hokies had the inside track on a Nickel commitment following his September 3 recruiting visit to Blacksburg. But that quickly changed after Nickel’s trip to Chapel Hill over the weekend, as the Tar Heels became the prohibitive favorite just a couple days later.

That was evidenced by the growing number of Nickel predictions across multiple recruiting platforms, including a combined 10 on 247Sports and Rivals. All of them favored the Tar Heels, and every single one was cast within a four-hour time span on Tuesday evening.

Nickel has great size for his position, and can do a variety of things on the basketball court. Although he’s not a tremendous athlete, he can bully his way into the post and make shots inside the paint. He’s also got a nice mid-range game, and rebounds the ball well. It’s his outside shooting touch that UNC fans may appreciate more than anything else, though, and it’s something I expect him to have on display early and often next season. He averaged 33.7 points, 10.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game during his junior season at East Rockingham.

Check back with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the Tar Heels’ addition of Tyler Nickel, and everything UNC basketball.