NCAA Basketball: Auburn, Vols, LSU, and UNC in play for 5-star F Jabari Smith

North Carolina Tar Heels

The Tar Heels either makes perfect sense or now sense at all, depending on your outlook. Head coach Roy Williams has a great history with developing bigs over the years and clearly, young recruits are aware. No team has more depth in the frontcourt this season that UNC, led by senior Garrison Brooks.

Joining Brooks is junior forward Sterling Manley, along with a trio of former five-star center prospects in Armando Bacot, Walker Kessler, and Day’Ron Sharpe. There’s also Dontrez Styles, a four-star combo forward commit already in the 2021 class. For Smith to have a clear role, two of the former five-star prospects will have to either transfer or go pro in order for this to make real sense.

However, that’s only half of it. Smith isn’t the only star forward the Tar Heels are currently after. They’re a finalist for four-star forward Trey Kaufman, as well as five-star frontcourt players Chet Holmgren, Patrick Baldwin Jr., and potentially Caleb Houstan, who is limiting his options to just four on Wednesday.

If any of those players pick the Tar Heels, then it’s simply too many big bodies on the roster for Smith, regardless of how talented he is. The rest of the options are pretty much wide-open for Smith to come in and be the go-to guy. That wouldn’t be the case for North Carolina, despite all the advantages that they normally provide for players. Unless this is his dream school, I doubt that they’re in the running ultimately.