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

Day’Ron Sharpe — Montverde, FL

C | 6-foot-10 | 246 lbs | No. 13 overall

The earliest of UNC’s six commits, Day’Ron Sharpe exudes Carolina basketball, offering everything that Roy Williams looks for in a big. His tenacity and technique on the offensive glass are unparalleled, as he routinely gains early position by using spins and swims throw opposing forwards out of his way. His scoring arsenal generally is limited to key-and-in tendencies (duck-ins, second chances, baby hooks, occasional lobs), though he can step out and hit the occasional jumper. His shot is a work in progress (career 58.3 FT%, excluding Montverde’s unavailable stats), but he’s working with a solid foundation, so he should at least be semi-respectable as a shooter at the college level.

Defensively, Sharpe can be limited by his top-heavy gait and his average vertical pop, but his spatial awareness and basketball IQ improved dramatically as a senior, showing up in his ability to contain ball-handlers in drop coverages and rotate to protect the paint.

His greatest asset — one that somehow hasn’t been lauded by fans and media — is his talent as a playmaker, capable of delivering bullets and passes of all kinds from anywhere on the court. He can throw skips into a shooter’s pocket, a 3/4-court outlet that would make Kennedy Meeks blush, a wraparound through traffic, and so much more. It’s not out of the question that Sharpe is the team’s best passer, even as a freshman. (Seriously. See for yourself.)

Both Sharpe and Kessler are talented enough to start for UNC, but such a role relies on the discretion of Roy Williams. Given the uncertainty of their exact roles (and the fact that we can’t look into the future to see how well/poorly the two play), both bigs could be in Chapel Hill for a single year or perhaps all four. Coach Williams isn’t one to cast aside his veterans, specifically a former five-star recruit such as Armando Bacot, so this speculation is probably all for naught and the starting frontcourt of this past season will likely resurface in the fall.