Football

This past Tuesday, 2019 verbal commit Jayden Curry announced that he was de-commiting from UNC.

Curry is a three-star cornerback that plays for the IMG Academy. Since his commitment last June, defensive backs coach Terry Joseph and running back coach DeAndre Smith left the program. Both staff members were instrumental in recruiting Curry, so it is likely that his decision to leave hinged on their departure.

What is worth noting in the tweet by Curry is that he is not crossing UNC off his list altogether. He is likely re-opening his recruiting so that he can see if there is a better, more guaranteed situation elsewhere. Prior to commiting to UNC, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, Maryland, NC State, Syracuse, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech offered him scholarships. We’ll see if he decides to stick with UNC, or if he decides to take his talents elsewhere.

Basketball

2019 recruit Matthew Hurt has been quite a busy guy when it comes to managing the visits numerous colleges have made to his home in Minnesota. What is apparent when looking at the list of schools, however, is that this kid is good. So good in fact, that every single blue blood, and then some even, have been knocking on his door.

Hurt has so far had visits from UNC, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana, and still has UCLA and Memphis coming up this week. Hurt has articulated that these seven schools are the main schools he’s focusing on, and honestly, I’m not quite sure that he could find another school that would be worth looking at outside of his list.

As far as UNC goes, Zags Blog got to speak with Hurt about his thoughts on playing for Roy Williams:

“North Carolina is the same way (in that they will use him the right way, which is what he also said about Duke). They would use me in pick-and-roll situations and try to be a mismatch nightmare.”

Hurt is one of seven recruits currently holding offers from UNC for the 2019 class. Other notable five-star recruits include Armando Bacot, Vernon Carey Jr., Will Baker, and James Wiseman. It will be very interesting to see what happens with Hurt and Carey especially, as both players are being recruited heavily by both UNC and Duke. Roy Williams’ staff has struggled mightily in recent years keeping kids from committing to Duke, but with former assistant coach Jeff Capel taking the head coaching job at Pitt, it’s unknown whether or not his replacement will be able to do as good of a job winning over recruits.

Finally, last night it was confirmed by THI that former Kentucky player Sacha Killeya-Jones was offered a scholarship to play for North Carolina as a transfer. Should he decide to play for the Tar Heels, he will have to sit out the 2018-19 season per NCAA rules and start his career in Chapel Hill during the 2019-20 season. This isn’t the first time that Roy Williams has tried recruiting the former Wildcat either: Killeya-Jones was initially recruited back in 2013 before committing to Virginia, and once he decommited from the Cavs, UNC went after him right away to try to get him to come to Chapel Hill. It’s clear that Roy Williams sees something him, so we will see if the third time’s a charm.

The list of other schools persuing Killeya-Jones is rather extensive for how long it’s been since his announcement. The ten schools that are under consideration are: Arizona State, Clemson, Georgetown, Nevada, N.C. State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Texas, UNC, and Wake Forest.