UNC Recruiting: Wendell Moore will announce his commitment on Monday

Yesterday afternoon, five-star small forward Josh Green made the announcement that he will be attending the University of Arizona next year:

Green’s decision comes off of months of UNC being considered the favorite, which undoubtedly is disappointing for fans and the coaching staff alike. Green will be teaming up with five-star point guard Nico Mannion, which gives the Wildcats a top-10 recruiting class so far.

Now that Josh Green is off the board, it is only fair to wonder what is next for Roy Williams and his staff. Five-star players Wendell Moore and Keion Brooks both play at the small forward spot, and so it very well could be down to those two players for who UNC will be able to recruit for the position...or will it?

Barely two hours after Josh Green announced his commitment to the Wildcats, Wendell Moore took to Twitter to announce that he is also ready to make a decision:

Wendell Moore has been on Roy Williams’ radar for quite some time now. The Cox Mill product was actually very close to committing to UNC before Duke swooped in and offered him a scholarship. Since then, Moore took a step back and announced that he would be looking at both schools, as well as NC State, Wake Forest, and South Carolina, who is no longer on his list. Moore has so far taken official visits this year to State and Duke, but was scheduled to take an official visit to UNC during Late Night with Roy next Friday.

At the time that this is being written, Duke is 93% favored to land Moore, with UNC next in line at 7% according to the 247 Sports Crystal Ball. The Blue Devils have yet to land a recruit for the 2019 class, and so this would be a huge get for them if they can pull it off. On the flipside, UNC has verbal commitments from three-star point guard Jeremiah Francis and five-star center Armando Bacot.

Should Duke win over Wendell Moore, we should expect Roy Williams to turn his attention to Keion Brooks. Despite Indiana being considered a heavy favorite to win him over, it is very possible that if enough pressure is applied to him UNC may just be able to convince him to leave his home state and have a chance to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. It’s unclear how easy or hard that will be, as Michigan State is allegedly next in line with the 2nd best odds of landing him. Brooks is scheduled to take an official visit to Chapel Hill on November 2nd, the same day that UNC will play Mount Olive in an exhibition game at the Dean Smith Center.

If UNC wins over Moore, it will be the second year in a row that Roy Williams has managed to lock down two five-star recruits for one class. The advantages that the Heels may have over Duke would be time and consistent recruiting — aside from the sizable gap between UNC offering Moore and Duke finally stepping in, the Blue Devils have been without their top recruiting Jeff Capel this summer after losing him to Pitt. Since then, Duke has missed out on a number of recruits that they typically would land, including Nico Mannion, Armando Bacot, and Josiah James. While it’s odd that they are striking out so frequently on their targets, it’s unrealistic to expect Duke to not get the recruiting class they need to replace their uber-OAD class that will tip-off this November. Moore could be the one to get everything going for them, or could leave them having to answer a lot of questions.

Wendell Moore plans to make his announcement at 7pm at Cox Mill High School auditorium. What should we expect Monday night? Will UNC’s 2+ years of work pay off, or will Roy be undercut for the second time in less than a week? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to check back here Monday night for post-announcement coverage.