UNC Recruiting: Day’Ron Sharpe and Caleb Love impress at USA Basketball mini-camp

Roy Williams and his staff have entered territory that they have rarely been able to exist in for quite some time: having three five-star verbal commits in the month of October, and also being able to sit back and watch them get better and better before their high school careers are over. That’s exactly what’s going on when looking with 2020 UNC commits Day’Ron Sharpe and Caleb Love, as they both participated in the USA Basketball October Mini-Camp this past weekend in Colorado Springs, CO.

To quickly catch everyone up on some of the rankings, Day’Ron Sharpe is the 17th best prospect in the 2020 class, and is the fourth-best center in the country. Caleb Love is the ranked 21st nationally, and is the fourth-best point guard in the 2020 class. Both players along with five-star center Walker Kessler currently give the Tar Heels the third-best recruiting class in the country behind Duke and Kentucky. They are also one of just two schools that currently earned commitments from three five-star recruits so far, with the other school being Duke.

Going back to their stops at the USA Basketball mini-camp, Sharpe and Love earned a lot of high praises from a couple of recruiting analysts, including 247Sports’ Evan Daniels and Josh Gershon, as well as Rivals’ Eric Bossi and Corey Evans. First, let’s start with what Daniels and Gershon had to say about the two future Tar Heels, starting with their take on Day’Ron Sharpe:

While you always hope the biggest, strongest kid plays like he knows it, that often isn’t the case. With Sharpe this weekend, it definitely was. The 6-foot-10, 245-pound center with wide shoulders, long arms and advanced strength bulldozed through opponents on offense, but also showed plenty of skill and improved offensive repertoire. He was at times dominant on defense and on the glass. Sharpe continues to improve while also showing no shortage of production. Recruiting: Sharpe is committed to North Carolina.

Here’s what they had to say about Caleb Love:

Much like some other names on this list, Love has shown significant improvement over the last year, particularly with his point guard skills. Now he’s in the conversation with the best point guard prospects in the class. Love has good positional size, impressive athleticism and a tremendous ability to play at different speeds and with pace. He made good decisions with the ball and showed off his vision. Defenders couldn’t keep him out of the paint in Colorado Springs and once in the area, he either finished at the rim or kicked it to open teammates. Love also is showing improvement as a shooter and has the potential to be a very good, multi-positional defender.

To compare notes, let’s go ahead and jump right into what the guys at Rivals had to say about both players. Let’s start with what Corey Evans had to say about Day’Ron Sharpe:

It is a bit of a surprise that this is Day’Ron Sharpe’s first trip to Colorado Springs. Regarded as a top-25 prospect for practically the entire time that the 2020 Rivals150 has been installed, Sharpe did not hold back from doing what he does best: dominate the paint. The future North Carolina Tar Heel has begun to expand his face-up game but give credit to where it is due; he knows where his bread is buttered and that is around the paint. Sharpe is a walking double-double and the epitome of a tone setter from 15-feet and in. He competes with a consistent motor, is a brute force with impeccable hands, and is only improving. Place Sharpe alongside Walker Kessler next year and Roy Williams may have one of his best 1-2 freshmen front line tandems since I can remember.

Finally, here’s Eric Bossi’s take on Caleb Love:

Back in July, I walked away from USA Basketball thinking that it would be hard for me to see five-star point guard Caleb Love play much better. He did that and more on Friday. During the first day of action the recently committed to North Carolina floor general was easily my day one stand out.

He hit deep threes, he showed burst to the rim for dunks and most importantly he did all of his scoring in the context of the game while making his teammates look good. There is an air of confidence him right now that is hard to deny and the Heels have landed a guy who is quite capable of stepping right in and taking over for Cole Anthony if Anthony can go to the NBA as expected after one year.

When looking at what each analyst had to say about Day’Ron Sharpe, what sticks out to me is the common theme of domination. Clearly Sharpe is seen as a guy that’s going to be able to get whatever he wants on both sides of the ball in the paint, and it sounds like he is working on evolving his game to be more versatile at the next level. It’s scary to think that he is as strong as he is already, and that is without undergoing any college-level conditioning. As pointed out by Corey Evans, the combination of Sharpe and Kessler has the potential to be one of the most lethal front court combinations that UNC has had under Roy Williams.

As far as Caleb Love goes, the more and more that I hear people talk about his game, the more and more it sounds like the gap between what he’s able to do on the court and what Cole Anthony can do is surprisingly not that wide. Granted, Anthony wouldn’t be ranked as high as he was coming out of high school if there wasn’t something about his game that made him special, particularly when you look at his insane athleticism and leadership on the court. However, Love’s stock is still going up somehow as he finds more and more ways to make plays for himself as well as his teammates. He’s going to be a really interesting player to keep an eye on for his final season of high school ball.

Finally, if there weren’t enough good nuggets to come out of the mini-camp this weekend, Rivals got to sit down and speak with Caleb Love about his commitment to UNC, and when asked who he thought would be the next player to join the Carolina family, he answered quickly and without any hesitation:

Whether Love knows something that we don’t, or if he just has an unfounded good feeling about the Heels landing fifth-best player in the country, one thing is for certain: this class is turning out to be one of the most exciting recruiting classes in recent memory. The best part? Roy Williams isn’t finished yet, as the final signing period for the 2020 class is a long ways away.