UNC Recruiting Week of 1/13: Roy Williams offers 2021 five-star Chet Holmgren

Welcome to this week’s UNC recruiting update! Roy Williams has been busy on the recruiting side of things since last week, as he made a visit to a potential prospect and also visited/offered another. As far as football goes, a top-ten prospect has put the Tar Heels in their top five list, and naturally that means Mack Brown will have to go toe-to-toe against some elite competition to win the recruiting battle. We also have some news to get into from a current commit, so without further ado, let’s dive right in.

Football

• Five-star 2021 defensive end Payton Page announced on Twitter this past Saturday that he has cut his list of schools down to five. Here are the schools he chose:

First off, UNC making the top five list is huge news for the program. While the 2020 class that Mack Brown put together was a massive step forward, they weren’t able to land a five-star prospect according to the 247Sports Composite. The good news is that Page is an in-state prospect, and Mack Brown and his staff has done an amazing job when it comes to convincing players to stay home. However, the bad news is that Clemson is by far and away their toughest competition, as the Tigers are currently given a 66% chance of landing Page according to the 247Sports Crystal Ball. We’ll see how everything plays out, and hopefully the 2020 season will be improved enough to show players that this team can compete for an ACC title, and perhaps eventually maybe even more.

Basketball

• This past weekend, 2020 commit R.J. Davis played two games in three days in pursuit of the Westchester High Schools’ all-time scoring title. He was unable to get the job done in the Friday game against St. Raymond, as he finished the game with 23 of the 54 points that he needed. However, he was able to get the job done Sunday against Rutgers Prep after he finished the game with 32 points. Davis now has 2,121 career points with more games to go, which should give Tar Heel fans a lot of hope for the future as this year’s team has struggled mightily to produce offensively.
• Five-star 2021 standout announced on Twitter last Friday that he has decided on the final ten schools that he will focus on for the rest of his recruiting process. North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan, Memphis, Tennessee, Florida State, South Carolina, and Ole Miss are the schools that made the cut, which isn’t a terribly surprising list for the second-best point guard in the country. Considering the momentum that the Heels have built up in recruiting point guards now that they’ve landed Coby White, Cole Anthony, and Caleb Love in consecutive years, one has to feel at least cautiously optimistic about their chances in getting the job done here. However, the competition is rather stiff, so Chandler will definitely be a key player to keep an eye on in the 2021 class.
• On Tuesday Roy Williams and his staff went back on the recruiting trail to get a peek at a new prospect for the 2021 class:

Caleb Furst is a four-star power forward from Fort Wayne, IN, and currently plays for Blackhawk Christian School. Right now the schools involved in his recruitment process are mostly Big Ten schools, as current favorite Michigan State, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio State, and Purdue are all in pursuit, along with Virginia and Butler. Should Williams decide to offer Furst, it could rock the Spartan’s boat quite a bit considering the minutes that UNC would be able to give him after Garrison Brooks graduates next spring.

• Finally, Roy Williams also went to see 2021 five-star center Chet Holmgren, which resulted in a scholarship offer. Holmgren is the fourth-best player in the country and the best center available in the 2021 class. The Minnesota resident is a 7-footer with a reputation for being a shooter and a ball-handler, which makes for a very unique prospect and one that could benefit the Tar Heels a lot considering the fact that they haven’t had a whole lot of big men of that particular nature.

Here’s what the 247Sports recruiting staff had to say about Holmgren:

“For a 7-footer, Holmgren moves remarkably well, and he has the rare ability for a guy his size to impact the game with his shooting and offensive versatility,” the 247Sports staff wrote in October. “He handles the ball well, has very good touch with both hands around the basket and is an effective long-range shooter. To go with his offensive output, Holmgren, despite lacking in strength, also impacts the game with his length, and ability to block shots. Over the last two years, Holmgren has taken big steps forward in his development and that doesn’t appear to be slowing down.”

Holmgren currently holds offers from Minnesota, Gonzaga, Purdue, Texas, Baylor, Kansas, and many others. The 247Sports Crystal Ball currently has him listed as a favorite to play for Minnesota, but there is still a long way to go in his recruiting process. If Day’Ron Sharpe and/or Walker Kessler decide to stick around for the 2021-22 season, adding a player like Holmgren could give the Heels an extremely dangerous and versatile frontcourt, which would cause a lot of problems for the opposition in the ACC.