UNC Recruiting Week of 5/6: Five-star 2020 PG Jeremy Roach commits to Duke

With the exception of one significant recruiting announcement from the basketball side, this week was a quiet week for Carolina. Both Roy Williams and Mack Brown have been on the road participating in the Tar Heel Tour, which means they haven’t been able to travel elsewhere to see high school prospects like they had been in recent weeks. Nevertheless, the show must go on, so let’s take a look at this week’s recruiting update.

Football

• The Tar Heel Tour made a stop in Greensboro, NC, where the coaches got to speak in front of the in-state crowd at Greensboro Coliseum. Mack Brown has taken every opportunity that he’s had to speak in front of a North Carolina crowd to promote his efforts to recruit in-state prospects, and so far he’s been putting his money where his mouth is — when looking at NC high school prospects in the 2020 class, UNC is leading all schools with six top-50 player commitments.

The Greensboro News and Record wrote an article about how Mack Brown has not only made recruiting in the state of North Carolina a priority, but he’s made recruiting in the Triad a priority as well:

“The high school coaches are very important to us and the best players in the state staying in this state, and hopefully coming to the University of North Carolina, is what’s going to make us better,” Brown said. “A lot of these guys or their fathers or friends, some of the head coaches were assistant coaches when I was here before, they remember how much we cared for the high school coaches and that’s not going to change.”

Following Larry Fedora’s tenure in Chapel Hill, it’s great seeing Brown get things back on track on the recruiting front. It still remains to be seen what type of product he will bring to Kenan Stadium come September, but the grand unveiling will be here before we know it.

• While Mack Brown has been busy with the tour, he has still found time to offer multiple players, with a good amount of those offers going to players in the 2020 class. As far as 2020 goes, scholarships were offered to four-star OT Connor McLaughlin, OT Thomas Shrader, three-star DE Bradyn Swinson, three-star DB DJ Taylor, and LB Jefferson Boaz. For the 2021 class, four-star DE Jonathan Jefferson received an offer, and is currently holding offers from big-name football programs such as Alabama, Auburn, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Michigan State.

Basketball

Five-star 2020 PG Jeremy Roach was on Roy Williams’ radar for a while, and a scholarship was offered to him this past September. While there wasn’t anything indicating that UNC had any solid traction in his recruitment, there was undoubtedly hope that Roach would consider making his way to Chapel Hill next year, even if the team currently is log-jammed with guards (for now). Unfortunately for Tar Heel Nation, Roach announced that he will sport a familiar shade of blue next year, which feels more like a pinch this early in the process than anything else.

Roach announced earlier this week that he will play basketball for the Duke Blue Devils in 2020. His decision meant turning down offers from schools like Kentucky, Villanova, Maryland, Virginia, and of course, UNC. His commitment gives Coach K yet another five-star recruit for his portfolio, and could set the stage for another big recruiting year for his team.

With Cole Anthony’s inevitable exit next year, Roy Williams will have to go back to the drawing board if he wants to find someone that isn’t already on his roster to give the point guard position a boost. Right now the attention likely turns to four-star Caleb Love, who has garnered more and more attention as of late from the likes of Louisville, Indiana, Virginia, UNC, and Duke. As of right now, Roy Williams has not sent a scholarship offer his way, but it’ll be something to keep an eye on as we move forward in the 2020 process.