Last week, we relayed the news of two more verbal commitments to the football program. This week, while there hasn’t been any new commitments, Mack Brown’s coaching staff is busy making final pitches to a select group of targets to finish their 2019 class. They’ve also started to look forward to the 2020 class.

Movement on the 2019 class has been slow and steady, with no news to report. That didn't stop Roy Williams from traveling all over the country the past few days, as the basketball program begins evaluating the 2020 targets. Let’s take a look at the week’s events.

Football

• 247 Sports released their updated organic rankings for the class of 2019, slotting UNC’s current team ranking as the 35th best class overall. That ranking could still improve with a successful signing day. Two more takeaways:

— Incoming freshman Sam Howell is UNC’s highest ranked quarterback recruit since Bryn Renner. Howell finished as the 97th overall player in the country. Renner entered North Carolina with the #79 ranking.

— UNC has three players - Howell, Khafre Brown, and Triston Miller - ranked in the state of North Carolina’s top 10. That’s three more than they had before Mack Brown returned, and more NC top-10 recruits than any other school. As Coach Tim Cross would say, “Let’s. Get. This. Work!”

• The football program will host a signing day event for season ticket holders and lettermen. This kind of access and a sneak peek into the program are a stark departure from the previous coaching staff’s interactions with media and fans. Details can be found here.
• The coaching staff has narrowed their focus to a select group of defensive targets to close out this recruiting cycle. Two major targets are in-state defensive lineman Wisdom Asaboro and Virginia linebacker Eugene Asante. Asaboro visited UNC for a second time this past Monday and saw the basketball team pummel Virginia Tech. Asante is expected to take his official visit to UNC next weekend.
• Linebacker OC Brothers listed UNC in his final 3. He released the news in a tweet on Wednesday night.

Basketball

• North Carolina is still waiting for decisions from Matthew Hurt, Cole Anthony, Keion Brooks, Precious Achiuwa, and Anthony Edwards. There is plenty of guessing going on about several of them, but no new concrete information. None of them have official decision timelines other than Anthony saying he may wait until after the all-star games, but we’re pretty sure Brooks will be the first in the group to pick a school.
• 2019 commitment Armando Bacot was named the 2019 McDonald’s All-American game. As of right now, he is the lone Tar Heel representative. Hurt, Anthony, Edwards and Achiuwa also received invites, so North Carolina’s numbers could grow. It is the second consecutive year North Carolina has had a representative in the game after Nassir Little and Coby White participated in 2018.
• Roy Williams used the long break between games to travel all over the country to check on current and future targets. On Tuesday night, he was in Texas to watch 2020 5-star hybrid forward Greg Brown. Thursday morning, he was in Georgia watching 2020 5-star center Walker Kessler at 6:30 in the morning. Then last night he was in Monteverde, Florida to watch Precious Achiuwa. See some of the evidence below.

• Speaking of 2020 recruits, Trinity Academy (Raleigh, NC) 5-star power forward Isaiah Todd holds an offer from North Carolina. There is no timeline for a commitment from him, but it could come as early as this spring. That’s what happens when players consider reclassifying to an older class. Todd may be one of those players.