UNC Basketball: WVU transfer James Okonkwo plans to visit Chapel Hill

Remember when we thought that UNC’s roster was likely set once Elliot Cadeau reclassified for this season? I guess we didn’t count on Bob Huggins not being able to use common sense.

Once Huggins resigned a couple weeks ago due to being charged with a DUI and following an incident with a radio station earlier, it re-opened the ability for players to transfer out of West Virginia despite the portal being closed. As part of reforms in the transfer process, a coaching change allows any player to transfer once it becomes official, as the player committed to a coach and not necessarily a school. A week after Huggins left, James Okonkwo entered into the portal.

With the new landscape of college basketball being what it is, even with the player movement mostly settled, a lot of schools like Carolina still have spots open, and as such, Okonkwo heard from several once he put his name out there. It’s easy to understand why, after little use his freshman year, his sophomore campaign saw him play in 31 games for the Mountaineers, averaging 11 minutes, pulling down about three rebound, and averaging 2.5 points a game. Not superstar numbers by any means, but also a player who’s clearly improving and his 6’8” frame can provide four and five depth for a lot of teams.

Say, a team that after the roster shakeup only has three rotation guys at that height or higher?

Sure enough Carolina reached out to Okonkwo, and sure enough Armando Bacot — UNC recruiter in chief — somehow got through the “Rate Limit Exceeded” issues with Twitter to create a post that got everyone to pay attention:

On Sunday, we found out why:

247Sports added a few minutes later the date that the visit will occur:

The timing is later than usual for a UNC add, as the basketball camp has already happened and summer practices have already started. It’ll be too late for Okonkwo to hit UNC’s Summer 2, meaning the first action he’d get would be fall practices, but with three open spaces and a player who’s clearly looking to be a productive bench player with two years left, it makes complete sense for Coach Hubert Davis to try to bring him in.

We’ll see how things go, but you have to imagine Bacot and Jalen Washington would be happy to have another person who can rotate down low.