Tar Heels Losing Some Recruiting Shine, Yet Hope Remains Ahead

North Carolina could be up for a big year despite falling under the radar with Seth Trimble coming back along with the additions of Kyan Evans and Luka Bogavac in the backcourt and Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson in the frontcourt.

While the on-the-court aspects of the Carolina program look great, the off-the-court aspects don’t. No, it’s about recruiting.

North Carolina still hasn’t picked up a commit from the 2026 recruiting class and several big-time players have looked the other way.

The Rundown

First, 2026 Top 20 prospect Toni Bryant committed to Missouri a week after he had visited Chapel Hill. It was going to be tough sledding for the Tar Heels to get him due to his close bond to the Tigers as they had had recruited Bryan since day one.

Five-star forward Tajh Ariza, the son of former NBA player Trevor Ariza, was supposed to visit North Carolina on Sept. 12. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, he decided to cancel it.

Five-star big man Cameron Williams, the No. 4 overall prospect in the Class of 2026 according to 247Sports, was supposed to visit Chapel Hill on Nov. 7 but canceled it.

Finally, four-star power forward Quinn Costello, who North Carolina showed a lot of interest over the summer, committed to Michigan.

While it shouldn’t be a major issue, the fact that two of the four prospects listed above canceled their visits to Chapel Hill speaks volumes.

And with Jon Scheyer keeping Duke among college basketball’s elite and Will Wade bringing his proven program-building regimen to NC State—both inside the Triangle—the optics look even worse for North Carolina.

Do Kids Still Want to Come To North Carolina?

With NIL in full motion across the world of college basketball, the question remains: do the top basketball recruits still want to come to Carolina and put on the mystical argyle-laden uniform?

That was a question that was asked along those lines to North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis.

"Absolutely. Maybe I'm naive in saying they are, but I really believe that it's important to a number of kids to not only put on this uniform and run out of that tunnel and play on that floor, but also be a part of this university and get an education here and and also be a part of this community, and being able to serve in the community, be able to give back, and that's something that we do with our guys,” Davis said.

To be fair, Ariza and Williams are Los Angeles area natives, so that would be a tough task for anyone to get them to leave the West Coast.

Bryant stayed loyal to Missouri throughout the entire process, which is a rarity these days in the recruiting world.

Davis recruited Costello as hard as he could, even traveling to Boston, but Michigan swooped in and secured a commitment from the Top 50 prospect.

Still, several blue-chip recruits remain heavily invested in North Carolina. That group includes point guard Deron Rippey, wings Maximo Adams, Cole Cloer, Bryson Howard and Cameron Holmes, as well as big man Miikka Muurinen, whose mother played for the Tar Heels in the early 2000s.

There are still young men who want to play for Carolina.

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