Top-30 ranked prospect Cole Cloer narrows his recruitment down to five finalists

In the early part of July, top-20-ranked Class of 2026 prospect Cole Cloer narrowed his recruitment down to eight schools.

At the time, the list of programs that were still in contention for the in-state product included:

Alabama
Florida
Indiana
Louisville
NC State
North Carolina
UConn
Virginia

Since then, Cloer, who moved to complete his high school career at IMG Academy in Florida, has taken some official visits and has some upcoming as well. Before he completes his official visits tour, Cloer has made the decision to cut some programs out of the mix, narrowing his recruitment to five finalists.

Joe Tipton of Rivals revealed the list of finalists, one that fortunately includes Hubert Davis and the UNC basketball program.

North Carolina is joined by NC State, UConn, Alabama and Florida as the remaining candidates in his recruitment. Based on his list of finalists, the lone programs yet to receive a visit are, in fact, North Carolina (which is scheduled for October 10-12) and Alabama (scheduled for October 17-19).

Right now, signs seem to indicate that it's a two-team race between NC State and UConn. However, North Carolina has the potential to lure the in-state product to Chapel Hill, but they will have their work cut out for them as others are making a strong push for his services as well.

The Tar Heels have been heavily active in Cloer's recruitment for quite some time now. If he elects to head elsewhere, it would be a major miss for the program, one that really is looking to bring in another talented recruiting class during the 2026 cycle.

Now, the pressure is on for Hubert Davis and company to get the job done in this recruitment, one that will have plenty of implications as to how the program proceeds based on what Cloer's final decision ends up being.