The situation on both the football and basketball fronts remains largely unchanged from last week, when I said there was a lot of waiting coming. It’s summer break for high schoolers, too, after all. That said, the last-minute tweaks and updates on the class of 2019 before they officially become Tar Heels this fall are still coming in, so let’s get a quick update on those:

Football:

• Thanks to an NCAA rules tweak, incoming freshmen can report to UNC early. Safety recruit Giovanni Biggers, alongside several others, are taking advantage of this rule, meaning that they’ll have more time, by a couple of weeks, working out with the team before the season starts. It can only help with getting the new talent accustomed to their teammates and the speed of the college game.
• Big-time recruiting the way UNC has been recently means big-time recruiting battles. UNC’s biggest target of the 2020 cycle is defensive end Desmond Evans, who they’re leading in Crystal Balls for on 247 for whom they continue to be frontrunners, but arguably second biggest is linebacker Trenton Simpson, and while he has shown real interest in UNC over the past several months, his recruitment has skyrocketed recently after impressive camp outings. He’s stuffed his May and June with SEC visits, including 2 unofficials and an official to UGA. UNC is going to have to get him back on campus for whatever it is Mack Brown replaces Fedora’s Freak Show with to seal the deal.

Basketball

• The news that shook the recruiting world was that one of the top recruits in the 2019 class, R.J. Hampton, is signing with the New Zealand Breakers of the Australia/New Zealand-based National Basketball League in lieu of playing college basketball. A lot of people thought he’d go to Kansas and end up as a package deal with Jalen Wilson, who UNC is pursuing after his decommitment from Michigan. Hampton’s decision to leave the country for contract money and endorsements has to help UNC’s chances. We’ll see how Wilson’s visit goes.
• UNC’s 2019 recruiting has paid dividends in the eyes of the media. Despite losing arguably its 5 most productive players at a program that typically takes more than a year to rebuild, UNC is ranked in CBS Sports’ early Top 25 at #7. Is such an exercise pointless in May? Absolutely. Does the list have problems? For sure. Is there still some validation here anyways? Yup.