UNC Basketball: Analyzing transfer targets Cormac Ryan, Harrison Ingram, Matthew Cleveland

There is perhaps no team in college basketball that needed a reset button more than UNC Basketball. Fresh off an appearance in the national championship game in 2022, Hubert Davis’ tenure as the head coach in Chapel Hill got off to a smashing start. One year and one missed NCAA Tournament later, though, and Carolina is on much shakier ground.

One way or another, the 2023-24 season promises to be much different. Six different Tar Heels have entered the transfer portal, while defensive stalwart Leaky Black and one-time Northwestern transfer Pete Nance are gone to graduation. Caleb Love has committed to Juwan Howard and Michigan, Dontrez Styles is joining Ed Cooley at Georgetown, and Tyler Nickel will return to Chapel Hill, but this time as a Virginia Tech Hokie.

The Tar Heels do have talent on the roster. RJ Davis and Armando Bacot will return, along with Jalen Washington, D’Marco Dunn, and Seth Trimble. Incoming freshmen Simeon Wilcher and Zayden High will provide much-needed athleticism for a Carolina team that uncharacteristically shied away from the fast break last season.

Though there’s reason to believe Carolina will improve simply by giving more minutes to its younger players, in order to return to the top of the ACC and compete for a national championship, Hubert Davis and his staff will need some help from the transfer portal. With approximately 1,000 players leaving their current schools for greener pastures, the opportunity is out there for teams to completely change their outlook for the upcoming season.

Carolina has already landed former Brown shooting guard Paxson Wojcik and former Louisville forward Jae’Lyn Withers, but there are still multiple scholarships remaining. Let’s take a look at how Wojcik and Withers can help the Heels, then examine three of the top rumored targets for whom the Tar Heels are still in the running.