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UNC Basketball: Tar Heels’ five-star recruit attends thrilling Sweet 16 game

ByBlake Cockrum|
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MARCH 25: Head coach Hubert Davis of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts on the sidelines in the first half of the game against the UCLA Bruins in the Sweet Sixteen round of the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 25, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MARCH 25: Head coach Hubert Davis of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts on the sidelines in the first half of the game against the UCLA Bruins in the Sweet Sixteen round of the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 25, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

A five-star UNC basketball recruit was in attendance for the Tar Heels’ thrilling victory over the UCLA Bruins in the Sweet 16.

As if there wasn’t enough to be excited about on the court last night during the Tar Heels’ back-and-forth, wire-to-wire thriller against the UCLA Bruins, there was somebody taking the game in from the stands that has UNC fans excited for what lies ahead.

That somebody, who watched the Tar Heels withstand the best effort of a team that reached the Final Four last year and seemed destined to do the same this year, was class of 2023 recruit Simeon Wilcher.

Wilcher and his father, Sergio, who live in nearby Roselle, New Jersey, were in Philadelphia to watch his future team in their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2019. Now, the consensus five-star prospect will have an opportunity to see them take their successful season one step further when they face off with the 15th-seeded Saint Peter’s Peacocks for the right to play in the Final Four.

It was fitting that Wilcher, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound guard, got to watch a current UNC guard, Caleb Love, go off for his career-best 30-point game, which featured a dazzling 27-point second-half performance that carried the Tar Heels to the finish line. Wilcher will have that opportunity, too, but he’ll have to wait until the fall of 2023 as he’s still just finishing his junior year at Roselle Catholic.

Wilcher, fresh off leading his team to the New Jersey Tournament of Champions title, is the No. 13 prospect in the 2023 class according to the 247Sports Composite. He’s second among players at his position and No. 3 in the state of New Jersey. He committed to North Carolina nearly two years before he was due to step foot onto a college campus.

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