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UNC Recruiting: Week of 4/29

Last week was huge for UNC commitments, and hopefully the train isn’t slowing down

NCAA Basketball: Charleston Southern at Virginia Tech Michael Shroyer-USA TODAY Sports

So, last week was a bit of a whirlwind, huh? A couple of big shifts in Roy Williams’ roster construction are now confirmed as Christian Keeling signed on to play one year as a graduate student for the Heels and Seventh Woods announced his intention to transfer, followed by yesterday’s news of Justin Pierce’s commitment to UNC. Add a big-time high school student event in each sport and we’ve got quite a bit of miscellany to cover this week.

Football

  • The Nike Opening Charlotte Regional was this past week, and several UNC targets and commits took part, undergoing athletic testing and participating in some drills and scrimmages. Of note: 4* wide receiver Muhsin “Moose” Muhammad III (son of Carolina Panthers great Muhsin II, if you remember) was named the best receiver after looking absolutely unguardable all camp, and it’ll be a battle to get him to Chapel Hill, although he’s reportedly a fan of the new-look UNC offense. He dropped his Top 8 yesterday, but it doesn’t tell us much we didn’t already know:
  • 4* Trenton Simpson was named best linebacker. Simpson had a great event overall, putting up a 113.91 SPARQ to place him in the 99th percentile of tested athletes. He’s visited UNC every month since at least November, which is only good news for the good guys. He tweeted Wednesday that he’d be dropping big news on Friday. I don’t think it’ll be a commitment, but expect the Heels to be on whatever list he puts out.
  • Defensive lineman Jacolbe Cowan had a good day as well, but I’m really just here for the repartee between him and UNC commit Malik McGowan, against whom he had some reps including a McGowan pancake that we don’t have video of and this that immediately followed it:

Hopefully the two can keep this synergy up after Cowan commits to the Tar Heels as well.

UNC Football 2020 Commitments

Name Position Height Weight Rating Positional Rank School Location
Name Position Height Weight Rating Positional Rank School Location
Malik Hornsby dtQB 6'2 175 4-Star 5 Fort Bend Marshall Missouri City, TX
Jacolby Criswell dtQB 6'1 218 4-Star 10 Morrilton Morrilton, AR
Ethan West ILB 6'4 225 4-Star 11 Cosby Midlothian, VA
Cameron Roseman-Sinclair DB 6'0 183 4-Star 18 Myers Park Charlotte, NC
Josh Downs WR 5'10 165 4-Star 41 North Gwinnett Suwanee, GA
Ray Grier WR 6'1 204 4-Star 66 South Point Belmont, NC
John Copenhaver TE 6'3 210 3-Star 11 Roswell Roswell, GA
Kendall Karr TE 6'4 230 3-Star 25 Stuart W. Cramer Cramerton, NC
Trey Zimmerman OT 6'6 294 3-Star 38 Roswell Roswell, GA
A.J. Beatty DE 6'5 250 3-Star 41 Central Catholic Pittsburgh, PA
Malik McGowan OG 6'4 315 3-Star 52 Charlotte Catholic Charlotte, NC
LaMareon James CB 5'10 170 3-Star 55 Indian River Chesapeake, VA
Tylee Craft WR 6'4 170 3-Star 74 Sumter Sumter, SC
Cedrick Gray OLB 6'2 190 3-Star 79 Ardrey Kell Charlotte, NC
Elijah Burris RB 5'10 210 3-Star 93 Mountain Island Charter Mount Holly, NC
UNC Football 2020 Commitments

Basketball

  • We covered it when it happened, but UNC got Roy Williams’ first 1-year grad transfer and first transfer in 8 years in the same week with the addition of Christian Keeling from Charleston Southern and Seventh Woods’ announcement of his intention to transfer. UNC’s positional breakdown changes a little bit here; Keeling is best suited as an off-ball guard/small forward, adding to a previously meager wing group for the Heels. His history of high-volume shooting success also fills a major hole for UNC.
  • UNC got another graduate transfer commitment with William & Mary wing Justin Pierce. You can see our article on that here, but this is a big deal; Pierce becomes the closest thing to a true ‘3’ on UNC’s roster in addition to his scoring and rebounding prowess. UNC has now allocated 6 scholarships to new players in next year’s class, giving them room for a maximum of one more after Woods’ departure. Precious Achiuwa is still not off the table, but the buzz for him going to Memphis has only gotten stronger over time.
  • Moving to future classes, there were a bunch of big-time AAU events this past weekend for college coaches to visit and evaluate at. Longtime target Ziaire Williams had a phenomenal weekend, being named as maybe the standout of the 2020 class by several in attendance, and the race for his services is probably about to get a lot more competitive after being thought of as a Stanford-UNC race for a while. Greg Brown III had himself a weekend as well, according to Jonathan Givony:
  • Guys UNC hasn’t offered but spent notable amounts of time around include Donovan “Puff” (brother of Cameron) Johnson, Cam Hayes, and Caleb Love. The first plays the same position as his brother and the latter two are point/combo guards. We’ll see if UNC continues/begins pursuit of any of them in the coming weeks.

UNC Basketball 2019 Commitments

Name Position Height Weight Rating National Rank School Location Status
Name Position Height Weight Rating National Rank School Location Status
Cole Anthony CG 6'3 184 5 Star 4 Oak Hill Academy Mouth of Wilson, VA Signed
Armando Bacot C 6’10 240 5 Star 20 IMG Academy Bradenton, FL Signed
Anthony Harris CG 6'3 180 4 Star 65 Paul VI Catholic Fairfax, VA Signed
Jeremiah Francis PG 6’3 190 3 Star 131 Pickerington Central Pickerington, OH Signed
Justin Pierce SF 6'7 203 Grad Transfer 5 William and Mary Signed
Christian Keeling SG 6'4 175 Grad Transfer 7 Charleston Southern Signed

UNC Basketball 2019 Offers

Name Position Height Weight Rating National Rank School Location Decision Day
Name Position Height Weight Rating National Rank School Location Decision Day
Jalen Wilson SF 6'8 215 4-Star 50 Guyer Denton, TX

UNC Basketball 2020 Commitments

Name Position Height Weight Rating National Ranking School Location
Name Position Height Weight Rating National Ranking School Location
Day'Ron Sharpe C 6'10 246 4-Star 26 South Central Winterville, NC

UNC Basketball 2020 Offers

Name Position Height Weight Rating National Ranking School Location
Name Position Height Weight Rating National Ranking School Location
Greg Brown III PF 6'7 185 5-Star 6 Vandegrift Austin, TX
Jaden Springer SG 6'4 195 5-Star 12 IMG Academy Charlotte, NC (hometown)
Isaiah Todd PF 6'10 195 5-Star 13 Trinity Academy Raleigh, NC
Walker Kessler C 6'10 225 5-Star 16 Woodward Academy Atlanta, GA
Jeremy Roach PG 6'2 165 5-Star 17 Paul VI Catholic Fairfax, VA
Ziaire Williams SF 6'7 175 5-Star 20 Notre Dame Sherman Oaks, CA