UNC Recruiting: Five-star recruit Cole Anthony is now on the Tar Heels’ radar

Roy Williams has been working hard on the recruiting trail as of late, making trips to get a good look at some of the best prospects in the country with the 2018 class mostly set in stone. The 2019 class has a lot more question marks, as it is still early in the recruiting process and not many kids have committed yet. For UNC, four-star commit Jeremiah Francis is the lone wolf until Roy can add depth to what could be another strong class.

One player that could help make this class a strong one is five-star point guard Cole Anthony. Roy Williams attended a series of games that took place this past weekend as part of the Nike EYBL circuit. During those four games, Anthony scored 111 points total, and made 17 of his 27 three-point attempts. He also added on 9.2 rebounds and 4 assists per game, trying hard to build a case for being the number one player in the country.

Cole Anthony currently attends Archibishop Malloy in New York, NY. He is a high-energy player that has a fair share of highlight reels floating around on YouTube. Anthony is the son of former NBA player Greg Anthony, who was a journeyman in the association, having played for six different NBA teams. He was also a part of the 1990 National Champion UNLV team, and has his jersey retired at the Thomas & Mack Center.

One thing about Anthony that is likely to be a huge draw for Roy Williams, is that he knows how to handle situations where he isn’t very effective offensively. As pointed out by Eric Bossi with Rivals, Anthony knows how to turn to his defense, rebounding, and passing abilities in order to help push his team to victory. It’s one of those qualities that proves to be extremely valuable, especially when you find it in a player at the high school level.

So who is currently after Anthony? Currently Duke, North Carolina, Villanova, Oregon, Louisville, Wake Forest, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Michigan, UCLA, and Maryland have all taken interest in him. 247 Sports has Duke leading in the Crystal Ball predictions at 80%, however, many of the schools listed above including UNC have yet to offer Anthony.

With that in mind, it will be worth watching this summer to see how enamored Roy Williams becomes with Anthony’s play, and whether or not he will give the 2018-19 senior an offer. Should he do so, Anthony will be the seventh player holding an offer from UNC, not including Jeremiah Francis. He would also be the sixth five-star player that UNC has offered, which perhaps shows that Roy Williams is on a mission to make this class the class he needs to re-establish his presence on the recruiting trail following the NCAA’s ruling back in October.