I don’t need to tell you, almost certainly, about the biggest UNC recruiting news of the week, but I will anyways: 4-star running back George Pettaway from Suffolk, Virginia announced his commitment on Wednesday to UNC, joining a 2022 class that is coming close to its final form. On the basketball side, I’ve got news from both the men’s and women’s sides of the game as things move forward on those ends as well. Let’s dive right in, then!

Football:

• Pettaway’s commitment brings the size of UNC’s 2022 class up to 14 commitments, and with two targets left, it’s just about wrapped up. So it’s as good a time as any to take stock of what Mack Brown has in his 3rd full class since coming back to Chapel Hill. Right now, this class is ranked 13th in the country, which is more or less with what he’d accomplished in his first two years — 14th last year and 13th the year before. Those classes, though, had 19 and 25 commitments, not 14, so the average ranking of each player that Mack Brown’s staff has brought in is significantly higher. Last year’s class had 11 players ranked with four stars or higher out of 19; this one has 9 out of 14. That said, the class as it stands would have ranked 18th last year because of low quantity, but quantity is a little depressed across the board, so there’s a good chance this is yet another top-15 class when all is said and done for Mack Brown and his staff.
• The two remainders to concern ourselves with are wide receiver Andre Greene and offensive tackle Zach Rice. Both should announce a decision before their season is over, which I guess is in the next month or so? UNC should be considered to be in both of their top 2’s, from what I’m reading, competing with Virginia for Rice and with Clemson for Greene. At this point, it’s just what happens, happens. Hopefully Saturday’s game made an impression on Rice, who was in attendance.

UNC Football 2022 Commitments

Basketball:

• It looks like most, if not all, of Hubert Davis’ attention is on the 2023 class now. Simeon Welcher, a combo guard from New Jersey, has scheduled a visit to Chapel Hill for the weekend of October 8th, and with UNC’s Late Night event the next week, there’s going to be a lot of recruiting energy around the program to start October, and you’d think something about a 2022 prospect would have come up at this point if they were visiting.
• Davis has also offered a couple of new players, both point guards from Georgia. Isaiah Collier is a five-star guard, ranked 18th in the country, from Marietta, and London Johnson is a four-star, ranked 35th, from Norcross. To this point, UNC’s point guard efforts have been pretty unilaterally focused on Robert Dillingham, the Charlotte prodigy, but this seems to be a sign that Davis is either putting some pressure on Dillingham or widening his net.
• You’ve probably seen that Dereck Lively committed to Jon Scheyer and Duke, taking another player off UNC’s board for next year. Like I’ve said, I think they’re done with the 2022 class, but losing a good player still hurts.
• On the women’s side, Courtney Banghart just had an absolute banger of an official visit weekend herself, hosting five-star Ashlyn Watkins, one of the best uncommitted players in the country, for a visit. Watkins is a 6’3 post player who’s been dunking since she was in eighth grade, and would be a huge get for a Heels team that looks to be pretty guard-centric this upcoming year.

UNC Basketball 2022 Commitments

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