Tag: UNC Tar Heels

UNC women’s basketball adds five-star commitment

This weekend, the UNC women’s basketball team was bolstered with the commitment of this five-star guard.

The UNC basketball team is officially making waves in the Class of 2025 recruiting. Five-star wing, Taliyah Henderson, has announced her commitment to the program this weekend.

Henderson is the No. 21 ranked player on the espnW 100 and has played her high school ball at Salpointe Catholic. Out of the 20 players ahead of Henderson on the rankings, only seven of them have committed at this point and no college has more than one of those players.

UNC basketball now joins the ranks of the top recruiting classes of the year in 2025. The Tuscon, Arizona, product has a 96 ranking on ESPN which is only two points back from the top players on the rankings.

Henderson told 247sports this about her chosen program.

The best way I can put it is that I love everything about North Carolina. They checked all my boxes. One part was the academics. With that being said North Carolina is one of the top public schools with one of the top journalism programs in the nation. A degree from North Carolina means a lot and you know great people have come from that school. Another thing was the athletics and not just women’s basketball. It’s such a strong successful community and that’s something I’d love to be around.

Henderson chose North Carolina over Arizona, USC, Tennessee, and Michigan, among others.

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ESPN analysts predict UNC football’s year-end bowl games

ESPN analysts had this to say about what bowl games UNC football would take part in this year.

Some top analysts had already projected their year-end bowls before ESPN released theirs and the consensus was that UNC football would play in the Military Bowl on December 28, 2024.

Now, ESPN analysts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach have released their predictions, and they disagree with where the Tar Heels will end up at the end of the 2024 college football season.

Bonagura has North Carolina playing in the Bronx, New York, at the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl against the Big Ten representative Maryland.

Schlabach followed most of the other analyst predictions around the nation and has UNC player against South Florida in Annapolis, Maryland, in the Go Bowling Military Bowl.

North Carolina is set to begin their season next week with a true road opener against Minnesota in Minneapolis. They are projected to win by 2.5 points.

Max Johnson and Conner Harrell are projected to split time on the field in the opener, according to head coach Mack Brown, and Omarion Hampton will lead the team on the ground and the offensive presumably.

There is a long to wonder about how this team will end up, but the hopes are on being one of the top 12 selected to the first expanded College Football Playoff selections for the upcoming year.

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UNC ranks inside Top 25 in 247sports Top Talent Composite

UNC football ranks high in talent composite rankings for the 2024 season, according to 247sports.

With the UNC football season opener just one week away from today, positive news came out on 247sports about the talent that surrounds Omarion Hampton on the team. UNC football ranks inside the Top 25 in their 2024 Talent Composite Rankings.

Out of every team in the nation, UNC almost made the Top 20! Alabama came in No. 1 with 1,018.28 points with Georgia and Ohio State not far being at No. 2 and 3 with 1,006.89 and 998.62 points respectively.

Alabama had 17, 5-star commits along with 50, 4-star commitments to lead the nation. The Tar Heels came in at No. 22 with a total of 794.99 points which was just three points behind South Carolina and five points ahead of Nebraska at No. 23.

North Carolina had two five-star commits along with 28 four-star commits coming in as freshmen for the upcoming season.

They were led by a pair of five-star recruits, offensive lineman Zach Rice from Liberty Christian Academy who was a .9937 followed by Travis Shaw, a defensive lineman from Grimsley at a .9900.

Desmond Evans, who is projected for a monster upcoming season, leads all the four-star recruits with a .9774 rating.

The Tar Heel season is looking bright and it’s not just UNC football fans that think so.

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Dyami Brown jolted into WR2 role after Washington Commanders trade

Former UNC receiver, Dyami Brown, rises in the depth chart after Washington Commanders trade.

Over the course of the offseason, we have been talking about the possibility of Dyami Brown heading into the season as a solid WR3 and even the potential for the former UNC football star to be the WR2 on the Washington Commanders.

Well, that day has come. Today, the Commanders sent Jahan Dotson, the presumed WR2 on the team, to the Eagles in exchange for draft picks. With Dotson no longer on the team, it not only vacates the position for Brown to step into, but it also vacates the targets that Dotson received.

Even with average play last season from former Tar Heel Sam Howell, Dotson received 83 total targets reeling in 49 receptions. Despite being nowhere near where people thought his numbers were going to be, that role was going to skyrocket with new quarterback Jayden Daniels drafted out of LSU.

Brown only saw 23 targets last year in just one start all season. With Dotson out of the equation, seniority would put Brown with the first shot at the WR2 role despite drafting Rice’s Luke McCaffrey, brother of Christian McCaffrey, this year as well.

Brown could see upwards of 60+ targets and could come nearly tripling all of his productivity last year if what the team and coaches have seen in him this offseason can come to fruition.

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247Sports names Duke freshman best ACC player over UNC senior

This Duke sensation was labeled as the best player in the ACC over this UNC basketball senior and reigning ACC Player of the Year.

It is no secret that UNC basketball retaining RJ Davis for one final year is going to bolster the offensive efforts of the team going into next year. Davis is the reigning ACC Player of the Year and led the conference in scoring last year with 784 total points.

He was No. 4 in the entire country in scoring as well. Davis ranked top of the conference in several other categories as well including field goal percentage, field goals, attempts, three-point field goals, win shares, offensive plus/minus, and points produced.

He was nothing short of miraculous last season averaging 21.2 points, 3.5 assists, and 3.6 rebounds per game during the 2023-2024 season. However, all of that proven success wasn’t enough to put him above the incoming Duke sensation in the eyes of one analyst from 247sports.

Here is what Trotter had to say:

“I feel bad about this one because honestly, RJ Davis returning All-American, that should be this guy,” Trotter said. “I feel like Flagg has the chance to be a generational type of player this year for Duke. When you factor in the positional size and the two-way impact he will have, I give him a slight nod.”

During the talking segment, Isaac Trotter talks about how he might go on to regret this bold statement when RJ Davis is averaging 22 points per game, but he follows by doubling down on his statement that Flagg is “generational talent.”

Despite all he has proved, it looks like doubters are still reigning down on the fifth-year senior, and he will once again have to prove his worth to the ACC.

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Former UNC target attempting to recruit Jasper Johnson in final days

UK-commit Malachi Moreno attempted to sweet-talk Jasper Johnson into joining the blue-blood rival.

Over the past couple of weeks, UNC basketball has lost several four or five-star recruits to blue-blood rivals. One of those lost recruits was Malachi Moreno, one of the top center recruits in the class.

His hometown of Kentucky and their new coach were able to lure him in and away from North Carolina. What seemed like just days after that announcement, fellow star, Jasper Johnson, announced that his decision would come down next week.

The 6-foot-4, five-star guard has been dominant in high school, and it has shown from analysts’ views of him. 247sports Adam Finkelstein had this to say about the scoring ability of the Overtime Elite guard.

He has a super soft natural touch and is very crafty around the lane with a deep bag of runners, floaters, and other types of finishes, in addition to the jumpers and step-backs he’s capable of making from the perimeter.

While he is playing ball in Georgia right now, Johnson’s hometown is in Versailles, Kentucky. On top of that, Moreno has outspokenly tried to recruit Johnson to the Wildcats himself.

The cards might be stacked against UNC basketball, but we will see next week where the five-star wants to take his talents.

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UNC football star named to third preseason All-American first-team

Omarion Hampton has been named to the AP preseason All-American first-team joining SN and ESPN.

College football is not short of talented runnings. Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II, Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, California’s Jaydn Ott, and Ohio State‘s TreVeyon Henderson all join UNC football‘s Omarion Hampton in the top of the positional rankings.

However, Hampton has now joined just Gordon as the two running backs to be selected to three preseason first-team All-Americans after the most recent selection of the Associated Press.

For a team that found most of their success through the air last season with now New England quarterback Drake Maye, the emphasis will be on the running game this season.

The need for stability and success could not come at a better time as Mack Brown still isn’t sure who is going to take the field for the first snap of the game against Minnesota next week.

After just 400 yards in his freshman season, Hampton broke out last year eclipsing the 1,500-yard mark on the ground plus another 200 yards through the air and a total of 16 touchdowns combined.

He ranked No. 1 in the entire conference last season in rushes, yards, and touchdowns. He was also No. 5 in the entire NCAA in yards from scrimmage behind just Gordon, Jeanty, Kimani Vidal, and Cody Schrader.

What can Hampton do next?

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Can this UNC basketball transfer be the Breakout Player of the Year?

Can this UNC basketball transfer be the next Breakout Player of the Year?

Sparks started flying this offseason when Hubert Davis and UNC basketball landed Belmont transfer Cade Tyson. It made it especially sweet with the departures of Armando Bacot, Harrison Ingram, and Cormac Ryan.

Is it possible that Tyson could fill all of those shoes in his first year at the program?

In his freshman and sophomore seasons with Belmont, Tyson averaged 13.6 and 16.2 points per game. He also added a career average of 5.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and almost one steal per game.

He also shot 49% from the field and 46.5% from behind the arc. He has the body to bully down low like Bacot, the versatility of Ingram, and the shooting ability of Ryan. A recipe for success if used right.

Not only can Tyson shoot, but the threat he brings will also open up more opportunities for reigning ACC Player of the Year RJ Davis and facilitator Elliot Cadeau amongst others.

Tyson will battle for time with current Tar Heels Ja’Lynn Withers and Jalen Washington as well as transfer Ven-Allen Lubin. However, with his upside, he should be able to carve that time out.

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Former UNC basketball transfer Pete Nance impressing Cavaliers

Former UNC basketball transfer Pete Nance has been on the coach’s radar this season. What are the chances he makes the Cleveland Cavaliers roster?

Pete Nance transferred into UNC basketball from Northwestern in the offseason three years ago for his last year of college basketball. During that season, Nance averaged 10.0 points per game coming off the bench.

He also added 6.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game as well. He ended up going undrafted in the 2023 NBA Draft before joining the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2023 NBA Summer League.

He ended up signing with the Cleveland Charge of the G-League after being released. Early this year, he signed a two-way contract with Cleveland. During a 10-day contract with Cleveland last year, he played in eight games averaging 3.4 minutes per game.

He once again took part in the 2024 NBA Summer League with the Cavaliers. This time, he averaged 11.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, and 1.4 assists per game. He also shot almost 35% from behind the arc.

Commenting on his performance, Nance said, “I have made a lot of strides, but I am nowhere near where I want to be. I have to continue to get better and keep working hard.”

Cleveland also added Jaylon Tyson in the first round of the NBA Draft this offseason with the 20th overall pick out of California. He averaged 19.6 points per game in college.

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Four-star UNC basketball recruit reveals list of upcoming visits

This four-star center has set his official visits and UNC basketball made the list.

UNC basketball recruiting has been a buzz around the internet recently. Malachi Moreno announced a date to make his decision, the Tar Heels are in the running for the No. 1 overall player of the class, and the future is bright.

Another bright light put on the recruiting list is Eric Reibe, a 7-foot-0 center from Potomac, Maryland, who released his official visit schedule and UNC basketball made the cut among five other schools.

According to 247sports, Reibe is “warm” with 11 different schools including his current crystal ball location, Creighton. Reibe’s visit tour starts with Kansas before heading to UConn and Kentucky ahead of North Carolina.

After Carolina, he will round it out with Indiana and Oregon.

Depending on the outcome of Moreno’s decision within a short time, Reibe might be a bigger target for UNC needing a center.

Reibe’s ranking has skyrocketed in recent months on Rivals. He wasn’t a top recruit his sophomore year off everyone’s radar. After rising as far as No. 94 in his sophomore season, he ended that year at 109.

Heading into his senior year, he has since risen to his highest rank overall of his life at No. 66. The senior has a plethora of schools to choose from; hopefully, he will become a Tar Heel.

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