With how great UNC recruiting has been under Michael Malone in recent months, it's easy to forget that he's still not done finalizing the 2026-27 roster. There's still one spot left and there have been two main names linked to that opening in recent weeks. That'd be guards Wei Lin and Angelo Brizzi.
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However, it looks like we're starting to get some clarity on things thanks to the team over at Inside Carolina. On a recent podcast, Sherrell McMillan has reported that while there was initial interest in Lin, an Oregon transfer, the staff ultimately decided to move on.
This shifted the focus to Brizzi, who took a visit to Chapel Hill in mid-June to meet with Malone. Per McMillan, that visit went great, but due to the timing of his transfer, Brizzi isn't in a rush to make a final decision on where he'll play his last season of college ball. You can hear more from McMillan on Brizzi and the final roster spot at the 12-minute mark of the video below:
UNC is working to land veteran transfer guard Angelo Brizzi this summer
"Brizzi got his waiver a couple of days after they decided to kind of move on from Lin," McMillan said. "I think he's got some people who like Carolina in his corner. He's from the region relatively, and there was some interest in him in high school, and then from his side at least multiple times during his college career as he's transferred from Villanova to Davidson, to Longwood, to Buffalo."
McMillan went on to add that Brizzi is kind of figuring things out right now, patiently waiting to see what the best fit for him would be in terms of playing time and NIL. Gonzaga is another team that has been linked to the guard, with Mark Few potentially working to pull a fast one on Malone.
Whoever does land Brizzi will be adding a guard with a ton of experience, who is also well traveled. The 6-3, 195-pounder began his college career with Villanova back during the 2022-23 campaign, averaging two points a game. He then spent one year with Davidson before making the move to Longwood. Then last season, he suited up for Buffalo.
In 2025-26, Brizzi scored a career-high 14.5 points, connecting on 48 percent of his field-goal attempts. He also shot 37 percent from 3-point land. Originally, the expectation was that he'd be out of eligibility for next season, but he was given a hardship waiver after only playing in nine games during his true freshman season with Villanova.
Because of this, the door has opened for him to play in the college ranks for one more year, and North Carolina is showing strong interest. It will be on Malone to work his magic to close things out here, but adding Brizzi as a backup to Terrence Brown would be a major score for the Tar Heels at this stage of the offseason. Only time will tell if that ends up happening or not.
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