UNC assistant Jackie Manuel dishes on ‘dream offers’ in recruitments

In the landscape of college basketball, you hear recruits all around the country discuss their ‘dream offers’. Sometimes it’s true and other times it’s not. But how can you really tell?

For a program like North Carolina, it has probably been the ‘dream school’ for numerous high school prospects. But sometimes that doesn’t mean the Tar Heels are a shoe-in to receive a commitment from that recruitment.

Current UNC assistant coach Jackie Manuel knows all too well about recruiting as the ‘dream school’ and also recruiting against them.

“If we’ve got a guy that we really want who considers us his dream school of course that helps,” Manuel says. “That means a lot of work has been done by the brand. But you can’t depend on that. We come at him just as hard as if we weren’t the dream school. If he has another school that’s his dream school, then you have to talk to him and everyone in his circle to make sure he’s genuinely open. At the end of the day, it really all comes down to relationships and fit.”