With fall finally on its way in Chapel Hill — and UNC's other flagship sports team struggling to start their season — North Carolina basketball fans are excitedly counting down the days until their team is back in action.
They won’t have to wait much longer, as the Tar Heels will unofficially begin their season when they hang their 2017 national championship banner in the rafters of the Smith Center at Late Night With Roy in less than three weeks.
The ceremonial event will give fans a chance to meet North Carolina's eight new additions to the team this season. With that in mind, here’s an update on UNC’s current recruitment situation.
Among this season’s new additions, the standout names are five-star point guard Jalek Felton and Pittsburgh graduate transfer Cameron Johnson.
Felton, nephew of former Tar Heel star Raymond Felton, is an 6-foot-3 combo guard who brings excellent ball-handling and court vision to the team. But since Felton will be competing with Joel Berry II, Theo Pinson and Kenny Williams for playing time, it’s likely that the first-year will have to make most of his impact from the bench this season. Nevertheless, he’s certainly one to watch for in the future.
Cameron Johnson, on the other hand, will almost certainly get plenty of starts this season. The former Pitt standout lit up the Smith Center when he visited last year, making nine of his 13 shots from the floor, including six three-pointers, on his way to 24 total points in a narrow defeat for the Panthers. As a versatile forward, it’s hard not to draw comparisons between Johnson and recently-graduated standout Justin Jackson. Those won’t be easy shoes to fill, but the hope for men's basketball head coach Roy Williams is that Johnson will be able to step in and provide the team with a second threat from behind the arc alongside Berry.
Looking ahead to the 2018 class, UNC has already landed two exciting players: guards Coby White and Rechon Black. The two are ranked first and third, respectively, in the most recent Prep Hoops NC statewide rankings, and will likely be called upon in their first year to help fill the hole left by Pinson and Berry's graduation after the 2017-18 season.
Elsewhere, the Tar Heels have offers still on the table for four other players also in the top-10 players in 247sports.com's national rankings for the 2018 class: Zion Williamson, Romeo Langford, Simisola Shittu and Nassir Little. At the moment, the most likely of those four to commit to UNC appears to be Little, although he is also considering offers from Arizona, Miami and Duke.
Finally, looking all the way ahead to the 2019 class of recruits, UNC’s sole commit so far is guard Jeremiah Francis. The Pickerington, Ohio, native jumped 18 spots from 64th to 46th in the most recent Scout.com rankings for the class of 2019, inching closer to the top-25 — which would give him a five-star designation. By the end of his high school career, there’s a chance he could make the leap.
