According to Inside Carolina, Justin Knox informed the coaching staff Monday evening he would transfer to UNC. That was also confirmed by Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman who tweeted the same based on text messages from Knox's uncle Darien Knox.
Darien Knox indicated earlier in the evening that an announcement would be forthcoming on Tuesday. Obviously that would mean telling the coaches prior to that. Knox still must complete 12 hours in summer school at Alabama before he can graduate and transfer without the one year penalty required by the NCAA.
While Knox's stats were not earth shattering, this is a huge get for Roy Williams who was left with only two post players following the transfers of David and Travis Wear. With Knox UNC has some insurance with a true post player and can conceivably rotate both John Henson and Tyler Zeller off in spots with the ability to play Will Graves and Knox in the post. The other bonus here is Knox occupies a single scholarship for 2011 only giving Roy the flexibility of pursuing a player in 2011 with that slot.
Now that UNC has their first choice, will Roy also be offering 2010 recruit Kadeem Jack? My guess at this point is probably not. Knox is an ideal fit for a variety of reasons, the one year aspect possibly being the most important. It became clear after the initial flurry surrounding Jack that UNC was not entirely sold on him despite being touted by Scout.com's Dave Telep. Once the possibility of Knox transferring came to light, UNC appeared to go into "wait and see" mode. Now that Knox is locked in, UNC could still pursue Jack but I doubt that will happen. Roy is likely to play the cards in hand at this point.