UNC Recruiting: The Tar Heels officially have the second-best recruiting class for 2020

The North Carolina Tar Heels have a better recruiting class than the Duke Blue Devils in 2020.

Do I have your attention now? Good. With that said, yesterday 247Sports updated their recruiting rankings for the last time with the 2020 class. There was movement in both directions when it came to UNC’s recruits on an individual level, but ultimately the result was UNC having the second-best recruiting class in the country, only to trail behind Kentucky. Let’s take a look at how each player finished:

PG Caleb Love - No. 6 (up from No. 21)

C Day’Ron Sharpe - No. 20 (down from No. 18)

C Walker Kessler - No. 25 (down from No. 13)

CG R.J. Davis - No. 53 (up from No. 70)

SF Puff Johnson - No. 62 (down from No. 41)

SG Kerwin Walton - No. 91 (up from No. 141)

The highlight of this list is easily five-star point guard Caleb Love. Making the massive jump from No. 21 to No. 6 gives Roy Williams his fourth top-five guard in a row (I would say “point guard” but Coby White and Jalek Felton was listed as a shooting guards and combo guards respectively). Love’s jump also gives Roy Williams his third top-ten overall recruit in the last three years, which we will get into a bit later.

So why did Caleb Love have such a massive leap? Here’s what 247Sports Recruiting Analyst Brian Snow had to say:

“He played really well in front of us in Dallas last spring and he continued that play over the course of the year. He’s become more of a point guard but remained someone who can score at a high level. We felt that with the way the game is going, considering his size, athleticism, and improvements, the jump was worthy.”

Seeing Roy Williams land such a strong recruiting class is amazing for quite a few reasons. Zoning in on Caleb Love specifically, landing another top-five point guard is huge considering the amount of turnover that UNC has had with players of that position leaving early for the NBA. Coby White and Cole Anthony proved quickly that they were NBA-caliber players, and because of it the point guard position has been a revolving door. It’s both a good and bad position to be in, because unfortunately recruiting success in the one-and-done era is heavily tied to this kind of situation. Hopefully Love’s success will translate into his next replacement if Roy Williams feels like nobody else on the roster will be able to step in when he goes to the NBA.

When focusing on the recruiting class as a whole, this is the best recruiting class that the Tar Heels have had in quite a long time. In fact, this is the first time since 2012 that UNC locked down a better recruiting class than Duke, and is also the first time they’ve had a top-five class since then. Why all of the success now? It probably doesn’t have to be said out loud, but the end of the NCAA Investigation and the FBI hammering down on college basketball probably played a hand in Roy Williams being able to have more success convincing players that Carolina is right for them. Amazing how that works.

In short, UNC’s success with the 2020 class should not only be good for the team this fall but also serves as a strong indicator that Roy Williams hasn’t lost his touch on the recruiting trail. This fall should be a lot of fun, but unfortunately the question that now needs to be answered is whether or not the college basketball season will be able to take place as scheduled. We’re a long ways away from having the answer to that question, so it’s probably better to just sit back and enjoy a glorious recruiting victory over that team in Durham.

How are you all feeling about the 2020 recruiting class? Do you think this roster will be enough to redeem what happened this past season? Let us know in the comments below, and as always, stay safe out there.

Go Heels!