UNC Basketball: Breaking down the Tar Heels’ 2020 recruiting class

With six highly-touted freshmen coming to Chapel Hill in the fall, UNC Basketball is welcoming in the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class. Here’s what you should know.

At this same time a year ago, many UNC Basketball fans were wondering just how Carolina would rebuild with half of its roster walking out the door.

Here we are, months out from the upcoming season, with another offseason featuring extensive roster turnover. Six players from this year’s main rotation are now gone, leaving as transfers (Jeremiah Francis, Brandon Huffman), graduates (Brandon Robinson, Christian Keeling, Justin Pierce), or NBA draft picks (Cole Anthony), creating significant vacancies in the Carolina rotation.

Fortunately for Roy Williams, he’ll have plenty of talented freshmen vying to fill those holes.

Ranked as the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation, UNC’s six-man haul features shot-creating guards (Caleb Love and RJ Davis), sharpshooting wings (Puff Johnson and Kerwin Walton), and versatile bigs (Day’Ron Sharpe and Walker Kessler) who give Carolina one of its deepest teams in recent memory.

With Anthony and Robinson now gone, there’s an open competition for the two backcourt spots. Love, UNC’s prized gem of the class and an expected one-and-done, is all but a lock to start at the point, but his backcourt mate is up for grabs. And in the frontcourt, the pair of five-star bigs add to what is arguably the deepest big man rotation in the ACC, with Sharpe and Kessler giving Williams the interior punch that he’s built his coaching identity around.

After putting up a paltry 14-17 record this past season, North Carolina fans are sure to hope that this infusion of young talent will bring the team and fanbase brighter days. With that said, let’s take a look at each of UNC’s six incoming recruits and what they have to offer.