After two flips from NC State over to the good guys, Mack Brown and his staff still aren't done trying to get players to flip to UNC. On the basketball side of things, Roy Williams is doing his best to wrap up the 2020 class early this time. Let's take a look:
Football
- As you may have seen from articles published here in the last week, offensive lineman Jonathan Adorno joined Stephen Gosnell in decommitting from N.C. State after some relentless pursuit by Mack Brown. Both are apparently lifelong UNC fans, which aided their decisions, but it’s still a heck of an accomplishment to get guys who have already made this big a decision to not just reconsider, but flip entirely into another one.
- The big flip of the season, though, would be linebacker Trenton Simpson, the second-best player in the state after Des Evans who recently decommitted from Auburn. I guess that wouldn’t quite make it a flip, and he is exploring options: he just visited Clemson, from where he doesn’t have an offer according to 247, will visit UNC this weekend, and probably isn’t done. Still, the widely held expectation is that if he doesn’t return to Auburn, he’s a Heel: and the 247 Crystal Ball picks have flooded in for UNC.
- UNC’s getting close to the numbers limit for this class, even when you count overloads. We’re going to have to start looking for signs of attrition on the current roster to make room for them, as it’s unlikely that in the first class that he got to recruit on his own that Brown will rescind offers from committed players at this (or any) point.
UNC 2020 Football Commitments
Name |
Position |
Height |
Weight |
Rating |
Positional Rank |
School |
Location |
Name |
Position |
Height |
Weight |
Rating |
Positional Rank |
School |
Location |
Desmond Evans |
DE/LB |
6'6 |
240 |
4-star |
2 |
Lee County |
Sanford, NC |
Myles Murphy |
DE/DT |
6'4 |
280 |
4-star |
6 |
Dudley |
Greensboro, NC |
Jacolby Criswell |
QB |
6'1 |
218 |
4-Star |
11 |
Morrilton |
Morrilton, AR |
Kedrick Bingley-Jones |
DT |
6'5 |
266 |
4-Star |
13 |
Providence Day |
Charlotte, NC |
Cameron Roseman-Sinclair |
DB |
6'0 |
183 |
4-Star |
22 |
Myers Park |
Charlotte, NC |
Ja'Qurious Conley |
S |
6'2 |
190 |
4-Star |
26 |
Northside |
Jacksonville, NC |
Josh Downs |
WR |
5'10 |
165 |
4-Star |
36 |
North Gwinnett |
Suwanee, GA |
John Copenhaver |
TE |
6'3 |
210 |
3-Star |
14 |
Roswell |
Roswell, GA |
Ethan West |
ILB |
6'4 |
225 |
3-Star |
17 |
Cosby |
Midlothian, VA |
Kendall Karr |
TE |
6'4 |
230 |
3-Star |
27 |
Stuart W. Cramer |
Cramerton, NC |
Trey Zimmerman |
OT |
6'6 |
294 |
3-Star |
47 |
Roswell |
Roswell, GA |
Clyde Pinder Jr |
DT |
6'0 |
303 |
3-Star |
38 |
Armwood |
Seffner, FL |
Jefferson Boaz |
ATH |
6'8 |
230 |
3-Star |
40 |
East Surry |
Pilot Mountain, NC |
A.J. Beatty |
DE |
6'5 |
250 |
3-Star |
48 |
Central Catholic |
Pittsburgh, PA |
Jonathan Adorno |
OG |
6'4 |
290 |
3-Star |
46 |
Rolesville |
Rolesville, NC |
Elijah Green |
RB |
5'10 |
190 |
3-Star |
55 |
Blessed Trinity Catholic |
Roswell, GA |
D.J. Jones |
RB |
5'11 |
190 |
3-Star |
57 |
Pine Forest |
Fayetteville, NC |
Cayden Baker |
OT |
6'6 |
260 |
3-Star |
56 |
Fort Myers |
Fort Myers, FL |
Ray Rose |
WR |
6'1 |
204 |
3-Star |
68 |
South Point |
Belmont, NC |
Malik McGowan |
OG |
6'4 |
315 |
3-Star |
86 |
Charlotte Catholic |
Charlotte, NC |
Cedrick Gray |
OLB |
6'2 |
190 |
3-Star |
78 |
Ardrey Kell |
Charlotte, NC |
Kaimon Rucker |
DE |
6'1 |
243 |
3-Star |
82 |
Hart County |
Hartwell, GA |
Elijah Burris |
RB |
5'10 |
210 |
3-Star |
95 |
Mountain Island Charter |
Mount Holly, NC |
Tylee Craft |
WR |
6'4 |
170 |
3-Star |
130 |
Sumter |
Sumter, SC |
Jayden Chalmers |
CB |
5'11 |
160 |
3-Star |
136 |
Lee County |
Sanford, NC |
Stephen Gosnell |
WR |
6'2 |
200 |
3-Star |
167 |
East Surry |
Pilot Mountain, NC |
Basketball:
- Roy Williams, as of right now, has 4 legit targets remaining for 1, possibly 2 scholarships, and it seems like he wants to get the 2020 class done as soon as possible so he can start on ‘21, where some of his rivals have already secured commitments. Cade Cunningham and Greg Brown have basically lost contact with the UNC staff, and it’s unclear which side in either of the two cases initiated this: but since their visits, there has been just about nothing connecting any of them to UNC or its coaching staff.
-
Bryce Thompson, Kerwin Walton, and Ziaire Williams have now all visited UNC and are in the later stages of the decision-making process, so it’s basically just a waiting game now. Thompson seems to be the closest to a decision; he’ll announce a commitment announcement day any day now.
- Puff Johnson is a weird case, where everything is pointing to him choosing Arizona but he's officially visiting UNC this weekend. I'm still not expecting much, but stranger things have happened.
- Ziaire Williams has set up official visits to Arizona and Oregon, going against the conventional wisdom that UNC and USC were pretty much all he was going to choose from. Caleb Love told us he’d be the next to commit, but as it goes longer without that happening, this recruitment is starting to look significantly bleaker.
UNC Basketball 2020 Offers
Name |
Position |
Height |
Weight |
Rating |
National Ranking |
School |
Location |
Name |
Position |
Height |
Weight |
Rating |
National Ranking |
School |
Location |
Ziaire Williams |
SF |
6'7 |
175 |
5-Star |
5 |
Notre Dame |
Sherman Oaks, CA |
Kerwin Walton |
SG |
6'4 |
170 |
4-Star |
96 |
Hopkins |
Hopkins, MN |
UNC Basketball 2020 Commitments
Name |
Position |
Height |
Weight |
Rating |
National Ranking |
School |
Location |
Status |
Name |
Position |
Height |
Weight |
Rating |
National Ranking |
School |
Location |
Status |
Walker Kessler |
C |
7'0 |
245 |
5-Star |
15 |
Woodward Academy |
Atlanta, GA |
Signed |
Day'Ron Sharpe |
C |
6'10 |
246 |
5-Star |
19 |
Montverde Academy |
Winterville, NC (hometown) |
Signed |
Caleb Love |
PG |
6'3 |
170 |
5-star |
21 |
Christian Brothers College |
St Louis, MO |
Signed |
Puff Johnson |
SF |
6'7 |
185 |
4-Star |
48 |
Hillcrest Prep |
Coraopolis, PA (hometown) |
Signed |
R.J. Davis |
PG |
5'11 |
165 |
4-star |
57 |
Archbishop Stepinac |
White Plains, NY |
Signed |