UNC Basketball: Some key off-season deadline dates
By Jordan Falls
As the UNC Basketball program continues to work through the off-season, there are some key deadline dates that fans may want to be aware of.
While there have been six players who entered the transfer portal that was on the UNC Basketball roster in 2022-2023, Coach Hubert Davis and his staff are working effortlessly to replace those players for the 2023-2024 season.
As fans, we love to follow, discuss, and speculate on the future of the program and who we think may replace those missing pieces. It’s also in our nature to panic about if we’re going to fill those open scholarship spots or not before next season, and with six open scholarship spots (prior to Paxson Wojcik committing), that can be scary to see such an open roster.
Well, one key factor in the off-season that all the people within the program are aware of is key NCAA deadline dates that staff must follow. Fans, on the other hand, may not be as aware of them. So we’re here to break it down for you and make you aware of some periods of time where you may not see as much “movement” on the recruiting trail or in the transfer portal.
Earlier this week, the Tar Heels hosted two transfer recruits on campus, Paxson Wojcik and Nick Timberlake, with Wojcik committing. Well, now, those commits have to end for a few days. We are entering a dead period with no campus visits between March 30th (today) and April 6th (next Thursday). So you can expect some quiet time coming up.
The next dead period is April 10th-13th with no on-campus visits then either. After that, the dead periods go away for a bit. It would be suspected that most players leaving the UNC basketball program have already entered their name into the transfer portal, but if they haven’t, the deadline for that is May 12th.
May 18th-May 26th is the next dead period in the recruiting process where there are no on-campus visits allowed. There are some players who have announced they are testing the NBA draft waters and may return to college next season. If a player wishes to maintain their college eligibility for next season, they must withdraw their name from the NBA Draft by May 31st.
Typically UNC freshmen and/or any newcomers (transfers) would be enrolled between June 13 and June 19th.
We know that’s a lot of dates to keep up with over the next two-plus months. The key dates are those dead periods where there are no on-campus visits. So if a transfer/recruit is considering committing but wants to visit first, it likely isn’t coming during those periods.
The NBA draft deadline to withdraw is another key date because there have been some players who have announced they are “testing the waters” while also entering the transfer portal. If there’s a player on that list you think the Tar Heels may be interested in, that May 31st deadline would play a factor.
We will continue to monitor these key dates and track the recruitment process of any and all players the Tar Heels reach out to or are reported to be in contact with, rather it be in the transfer portal or recruitment out of high school.
Follow us @KeepingItHeel on Twitter and like our fan page on Facebook for continued coverage of UNC basketball news, updates, and recruiting.