UNC Recruiting: 2024 Four-star prospect James Brown will officially visit campus during Late Night

One thing that I’ve noticed about Hubert Davis since he took the head coaching job is that he has as good of an eye for recruits as Roy Williams did. For example, while it’s still a sore subject, Davis picked up on just how good of a player G.G. Jackson was, and he did everything he could to make sure he could lock down the former commit. I can’t help but get that feeling a little bit with who we’re going to talk about, especially since there is so much time left before he graduates high school.

Four-star 2024 prospect James Brown announced that he will visit Chapel Hill on October 15th, which is the same weekend as Late Night. Brown was offered a scholarship at the end of June very shortly after initially being contacted. In fact, he received the offer the day after Hubert Davis went to see him at the NBPA Top 100 Camp. Brown’s visit during Late Night should be an excellent time to check out campus, likely experience the Dean Dome for the first time as a Chicago native, and also catch the football game against Duke the next day.

Brown is a 6’10 center that currently plays for St. Rita High School in Chicago, IL. As of right now he is the sixth-best center in the country, and is the 31st-best overall player in the country according to the 247Sports Composite. During his sophomore season, Brown averaged 13.5 points, 10 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game, all while shooting 67% from the field. As of right now, the short list of big names that have offered him a scholarship are Duke, Michigan State, Ohio State, Illinois, Iowa, Notre Dame, Georgia, and Indiana.

ON3 got to speak with Brown about Carolina, and here is what he had to say:

“I know a lot historically about the program, with their success and their many great players but that’s another school I’m prepared to learn a lot about,” Brown said. “That’s a school that I like, even outside of their basketball success but educational success as well. That’s something that’s really important to me and my family, athletics, but education as well. I’m really excited to get to know Coach (Hubert) Davis and his staff and the whole Carolina program.”

While it is very early and more targets will start to show up on Hubert Davis’ recruiting board in the coming months, attempting to get Brown out of the Midwest is going to be a challenge. Lately Iowa and Illinois have greatly improved in the Big Ten, and I would even argue that Michigan State is close enough to Chicago to where access to his family is a bit easier. It will be a good test to see if Davis has the same level of power when recruiting in the Midwest as Roy Williams did, as he had absolutely no trouble landing guys from the area (i.e. Marcus Paige, Harrison Barnes, and Tyler Hansbrough just to name a few).

In the coming weeks and/or months we should hear which recruits will join Brown Late Night weekend, as it is usually one of the bigger recruiting events of the academic year. There are a good amount of prospects out there in both the 2023 and 2024 classes, so we will have to wait and see who announces their Late Night visit next.