UNC Recruiting: Five-star recruit Matthew Hurt commits to Duke

Five-star forward Matthew Hurt announced Friday afternoon that he will be taking his talents to Durham, NC to play for the Duke Blue Devils. This announcement is likely a surprise to few, and ends a lengthy recruitment process for yet another player that seems like he made up his mind quite a while ago. That is, of course, if you are a believer in the top recruiting experts who have been saying for the last couple of months that Duke was looking like the inevitable landing spot.

With his commitment, Duke takes a closer step to landing one of the top recruiting classes in the country. He will join Vernon Carey, Wendell Moore, and Boogie Ellis in the 2019 class, with four-star Cassius Stanley still left on their recruiting board. There are some analysts that say that the commitment of Stanley will give Duke the best recruiting class in the country, so we will see what he ends up deciding.

So what does this mean for UNC? The quick and easy answer is that we won’t know until Monday night when Cole Anthony makes his decision. This couldn’t have been a surprise to Roy Williams and his staff, but missing out on Hurt doesn’t make their job any easier in solidifying the 2019 class. Even if Anthony commits to UNC on Monday there will be a lot of ground to cover, but Williams has been in contact with quite a few graduate transfers and will be making some visits in the coming days/weeks.

For an update on both basketball and football recruiting for the Tar Heels, check out our weekly recruiting update that was released earlier today.