What's it like to be recruited to play basketball at UNC?

In 2022, former UNC basketball center Armando Bacot tweeted, “If you don’t want to commit to UNC, don’t visit because if you do, you will.” 

When first-year center Blanca Thomas visited Chapel Hill as a recruit, she felt that something was pulling her to be there.

It was the same for first-year men's basketball forward James Brown. And for sophomore forward Ciera Toomey. 

That invisible force pulling recruits to UNC has always been there. 

For some time after his North Carolina career, Michael Jordan’s legacy alone was perhaps enough to convince young players to wear UNC’s iconic blue and white jerseys.

But now, it's UNC’s emphasis on building relationships that attracts young players. The process of first-year recruitment starts about two years before a player graduates from high school. Five out of the six first-year basketball players this year received an offer from North Carolina in the summer before or early in their junior year of high school. 

Recruits will usually schedule an official visit to UNC. Brown received an offer in June 2022, and came for an official visit in October. 

Bacot’s sentiment rang true for Brown, who committed three months after his visit. 

“We went to dinner, watched practice, took a lot of pictures, kind of just saw the campus,” Brown said. “They kind of sat me down and showed me kind of what they envisioned for me being here, what my role could be.” 

But sometimes, unofficial visits are just as important. 

Spending time with the team, the coaches and building relationships is what drew Thomas to North Carolina. 

“After I had been here, I would say maybe about three times is about all I needed to be like, 'OK, yeah, this is where I need to be,'” Thomas said. 

But like the Jordan effect, recruitment takes more heavy lifting than flaunting Chapel Hill’s historic campus and basketball facilities. 

During Brown’s recruitment process, head coach Hubert Davis and assistant coach Sean May talked with him on the phone several times a week and visited the forward and his family in Illinois. Brown’s coach at St. Rita High School in Chicago, Roshawn Russell, was with him through his recruitment process. He met Davis and May when they visited Brown. 

“I’ll say that they really were focused on building a relationship with James,” Russell said. “So, while we had some conversations, they definitely focused more on James and his family and building that relationship.”

Junior forward Cade Tyson had a similar experience in the transfer portal. He was originally recruited to Belmont but entered the portal after last season. 

The common denominator for the three recruits was UNC’s emphasis on family. 

“I definitely felt the family from both ends, Belmont and UNC, so UNC felt like home,” Tyson said. 

Davis puts the needs of the program at the front when considering recruits. UNC has received some criticism for its inability to secure high-profile recruits. This summer, the coaching staff contacted several transfer targets in the search for a new center, including Durham native Jonas Aidoo, who scheduled an official visit to UNC but committed to Arkansas before his trip to Chapel Hill.

Ultimately, Davis says he prioritizes recruits’ dedication to North Carolina.

“This is a 'we' program, it’s not about just the 'me,' it’s about the 'we,'” Davis said. “Those are the types of conversations I have with recruits, whether it's from the transfer portal or high school.”

Women’s basketball coach Courtney Banghart has a slightly different approach. She begins her recruitment process by considering the needs of the team and how to build around the established players. 

In the transfer portal, when the right players become available, it's all about them. This year, those players were graduate guard Grace Townsend and junior guard Trayanna Crisp. 

“We made sure that we were their only visit and made that happen,” Banghart said.

And, according to graduate guard Lexi Donarski, Banghart is the same person when she’s recruiting players and after they've arrived on campus. 

“She’s very intense,” Donarski said. “She cares really hard about the team and about you personally, and she’s willing to push you to be the best you can be on and off the court.”

And while UNC certainly doesn’t succeed in nabbing every player it sets out to recruit, its family-oriented recruiting earned the men’s and women’s teams the No. 8 and No. 15 ranked recruiting classes in 2024, respectively. 

@BeckettBrant

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