UNC Recruiting Week of 6/12: Two commitment announcements are imminent for Mack Brown and his staff

Welcome to this week’s recruiting update! Last week was an incredible week for Carolina Basketball, as Hubert Davis managed to land both a transfer in Dawson Garcia, and 2022 five-star Jalen Washington. The addition of Washington now gives UNC not only the best recruiting class in the ACC, but the best class in the country at this point and time. Any misconceptions that Hubert Davis couldn’t recruit have essentially been debunked, though I personally found that to be a highly unusual take, as Hubert Davis had been heavily involved in recruiting during the Roy Williams era. I digress, things are starting to trend up for the basketball recruiting trail, and one can only hope it stays that way.

As for the football side of things, we are all fully aware of what Mack Brown has been able to get done on the trail. Two defensive prospects are expected to make their announcements in a matter of days, and it is looking good that both players will commit to the Tar Heels. Let’s go ahead and dive into this and more in this week’s update.

Football

• This Saturday, four-star cornerback Daylen Everette will announce where he plans to attend college in 2022. The IMG Academy product will be picking from the following list of schools: UNC, Florida State, Clemson, Oregon, and Georgia. Everette is the 40th-best player in the country, and the seventh-best cornerback according to the 247Sports Composite. Perhaps even more intriguing than that, 247Sports has him as the 22nd-best player in the country and the fourth-best cornerback in their own rankings.

The really important factor in all of this is that since Everette is a cornerback, this means that Dre Bly is the one in charge of recruiting him. The buzz is that the Tar Heels are in excellent position to land him, but Clemson isn’t far behind. There is also a chance that Georgia is still an option for Everette, but ultimately this likely comes down to the Heels and the Tigers. Should he commit to UNC, it will give Mack Brown his fifth four-star recruit of the 2022 class, which would make them tied for the second-most in the ACC with Florida State.

• Another player who is ready to make his announcement is three-star defensive lineman Bryson Jennings. Listed as an edge rusher, the 6’6 235-lb prospect announced Tuesday via Twitter that he plans on making his announcement tonight at 7pm/et.

Jennings is ranked as the 425th-best player in the country, and the 21st-best edge rusher according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. The five schools that Jennings will pick from are UNC, Virginia, Penn State, Kentucky, and Virginia Tech. The 247Sports Crystal Ball is 100% locked in on Jennings picking Carolina, but it’s worth noting that there was only one analyst that logged a prediction. Check in with us later tonight to find out where he ends up landing.

Basketball

• Last week was the Hoop Group Atlantic City Jam Fest, and four-star target Cameron Whitmore took the court with Team Melo EYBL. Whitmore is a 6’6, 200-lb small forward that plays for Archbishop Spalding in Severn, MD. He is the 55th-best player in the country, and the 15th-best small forward per the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Cityofbasketballlove.com caught up with Whitmore during the event, and when asked about his recruitment he mentioned a few schools that he specifically had his eye on.

“I’m focusing on Louisville, UNC, Maryland, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Illinois,” Whitmore said. “That’s the main six.”

As of right now, it’s hard to tell which way Whitmore’s recruitment is leaning, but one thing is for sure: it would be a huge win for UNC to land a four/five-star small forward in this recruiting class. In the final years of Roy Williams’ tenure, his biggest obstacle was landing high-caliber wings that were able to produce at the same level as players like Justin Jackson and Cam Johnson (Nassir Little was a high-level talent, but the production never quite got there). Johnson was the product of the transfer portal, and Hubert Davis took the same route to acquire Justin McKoy for the 2021-22 squad. It feels like something has to give at some point, especially since Davis has four top-100 small forwards on his recruiting board, but time will tell if he will be able to break the curse, and also whether or not Whitmore will be the one to do it.