UNC Basketball: Top Tar Heels target leaning toward ACC rival

The UNC basketball program is squarely on the outside looking in for the top center in the class of 2022. 

Decision day has come for five-star center Dereck Lively II, and things aren’t looking good for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Even that is probably a mild understatement, as the Tar Heels don’t appear to be anywhere near the top of Lively’s list, and honestly don’t seem to have been for quite some time.

Instead, it’s the Duke Blue Devils who are trending in just about every way possible for the player that many consider the best in the class of 2022. That’s agreed upon by no less than a dozen college basketball analysts and insiders across the 247Sports and Rivals platforms. Crystal Ball selections include both Travis Branham and Director of Basketball Scouting Jerry Meyer. FurtureCast picks from a handful of others agree, including TigerSportsReport’s Isaac Simpson, who had the following to say about Lively’s upcoming commitment in the closing days:

"“There was a lot of momentum for UK over the last couple of weeks but here leading up to Monday it feels like the tide has changed. I hate to change my FutureCasts but feels like he’s headed to Durham.”"

Others seem to have felt similarly leading into the final weeks of Lively’s highly publicized recruitment, though Tar Heel fans have expected for quite some time now that Lively was headed in a direction other than Chapel Hill. That didn’t quite seem to be the case at one point, as Lively was thought to be fairly interested in the idea of playing his (likely) lone year of college hoops for the Tar Heels.

But following his visit to North Carolina in early June, things began to really slow down between Hubert Davis, the Tar Heels and Lively, the No. 2 overall prospect in the nation according to 247Sports and No. 3 in the Rivals150. Regardless, it appears as if Duke, a program that’s already got commitments from two five-star recruits and a four-star in the 2022 class, will snag another one on Monday evening when Lively announces his long-awaited decision.

Stick with Keeping It Heel for any developments on the Dereck Lively II recruitment, and everything UNC basketball.