UNC Recruiting week of 9/23: 2020 five-star Caleb Love’s decision coming next week

If the last seven days of recruiting haven’t done anything to your heart as a Tar Heels fan, both good and bad, you may need to take a trip to your nearest hospital. Things have been wild in the world of basketball and football recruiting, and this week is going to make things even more interesting. The trail for basketball in particular has started scorching behind the footsteps of Roy Williams, and it just may catch fire completely by the time next week is over. Let’s go ahead and jump into everything that’s been happening in Chapel Hill.

Football

• 2020 five-star DE Desmond Evans made an unofficial visit to campus this past weekend when the Tar Heels faced off against App State. While there haven’t been many details released on how the visit went, one has to feel pretty good about the fact that he took the time to make it to the game. Evans also is starting to schedule his official visits, so we likely will hear when he plans to visit campus again very soon.
• Speaking of visits, this weekend is a huge recruiting weekend for football, as recruits from the 2020, 2021, and 2022 class will be in attendance when Carolina takes on the reigning national champion Clemson Tigers. It should be the perfect environment to win over prospects in, as the sold-out crowd will be in rare form to help cheer on the Heels as they try to cause what would be the biggest upset of the college football season so far.
• 2021 four-star DT Tim Keenan announced via Twitter earliest this week that he has received an offer from Mack Brown and his staff:

Keenan is the 17th best DT in the 2021 class, and is ranked 214th overall. He currently plays at Ramsay High School in Birmingham, AL, and also holds a scholarship from the Crimson Tide as well as LSU, Clemson, Georgia, Texas A&M, and others.

• Finally, the Heels lost a commitment this week when 2020 three-star CB LaMareon James announced via Twitter that he was re-opening his recruitment:

James initially committed to Carolina back in March of this year, and since then had made a few more trips to campus including just a few weeks ago when he unofficially visited for the Miami game. Now that he is a prospect once again, he has a few good options to revisit for school, such as Virginia Tech, Michigan, and Auburn.

Basketball

• If you happened to miss it this week, 2020 five-star center Walker Kessler committed to the University of North Carolina this week. Landing a big five-star recruit like Kessler may have a sizable impact on what the final product of next year’s recruiting class looks like, and a number of the big name players Roy Williams is chasing will be in town for their official visits this weekend.
• Roy Williams may have the most top-tier recruits visiting this weekend that he’s ever had during his tenure at UNC. Five-star prospects Cade Cunningham, Paolo Banchero, Day’Ron Sharpe, Greg Brown, and Ziaire Williams are all in town for Late Night with Roy, as well as the game against Clemson Saturday. For a more in-depth breakdown of the prospects, check out Jake Lawrence’s piece from earlier this week.
• One player that won’t be in attendance this weekend is 2020 five-star point guard Caleb Love. This is because he was just in town this past weekend with Walker Kessler, and following the visit cut his final list down to just Missouri and UNC.

Amazingly, this wasn’t the most interesting development to come from Love’s visit to campus. The 247Sports Crystal Ball gave UNC a 100% chance of landing the five-star guard, with one of the voters being recruiting expert Evan Daniels. So far this year he has predicted prospects with 100% accuracy, so his vote could say a lot about where things are with Love.

If that weren’t enough, Daniels reported that Love should make his decision within the next week. Should Love choose the Tar Heels, it will give Roy Williams three five-star commits for the 2020 class with numerous prospects still out there. When thinking about the possibilities of who is left on the board from there, this has the potential to become the best recruiting class that Roy Williams has ever had at UNC. Brace yourselves, because I have a feeling that this fall is going to be really fun.