Two More Basketball Prospects Commit to UNC

WRALSportsFan

Two More Basketball Prospects Commit to UNC

Roy Williams

By Dane Huffman

Jan 5, 2008

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Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina has added two more commitments from high school juniors as the Tar Heels strengthened their future post position.

Carolina received commitments Friday from brothers David and Travis Wear of Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei. Both are 6 feet 10 and 220 pounds.

Those decisions come a day after UNC also received a commitment from 6-10 John Henson of Round Rock, Texas.

According to The Los Angeles Times, Travis Wear leads his team with an average of 18.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. David Wear has averaged 17.4 points and 10 rebounds. Both were recruited by UCLA and other top Pac-10 programs.

Dave Telep, who lives in Wake Forest and covers basketball recruiting for the Scout.com network, said the three new recruits bolster a UNC frontcourt that will also include 6-11 Tyler Zeller of Washington, Ind., and 6-8 Ed Davis of Richmond, Va.

Zeller and Davis are now high school seniors.

“Roy Williams, with these five guys coming in, has turned up the internal competition for playing time among five really good players,” Telep said Saturday. “What you’ll see is the foundation for one of the deepest and strongest frontcourts in the country - if not the biggest.”

Among juniors, Scout.com currently has Henson ranked No. 24, David Wear No. 26 and Travis Wear No. 27.

Telep said the Wears should be a perfect fit for coach Williams’ system because they are skilled big men who can run the floor.

“I have a hard time distinguishing between both of them - that’s been the case for a lot of their careers,” he said of the Wears. “At different times, one has been thought of as better than the other. At this point, both have similar characteristics.

“They are by nature skilled 4 men who have the ability to play facing the basket. They have been big-time into working on their overall skill package. They are confident from mid-range and in and can shoot 3s.”

Telep said UNC is still recruiting the junior class hard, looking especially for wing players. He said the Tar Heels are pursuing 6-6 junior Dominic Cheek of Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony and 6-3 Dexter Strickland of Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick.

“They are by no means done,” Telep said. “They’re probably done shopping down the big man aisle and are looking to fill their cart with wings. They are moving to a different part of the grocery list.”

UNC BASKETBALL COMMITMENTS

Current high school seniors

Tyler Zeller, 6-11 center, Washington, Ind.
Ed Davis, 6-8 forward, Richmond, Va.
Larry Drew, 6-0 point guard, Woodland Hills, Calif.

Current high school juniors

David Wear, 6-10 forward, Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei.
Travis Wear, 6-10 forward, Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei.
John Henson, 6-10 forward, Round Rock, Texas

Current high school sophomores

Kendall Marshall, 6-3 point guard, Arlington, Va., Bishop O’Connell

Most Recent Comments

Wow, 33 comments about a couple of high school juniors?

At least since there names are David & Travis, unc won't have to worry about changing the spelling or pronunciation of their first names. I thought it was comical that Woody Durham changed the pronunciation of JamesOn to Jamison (like Antawn) after Curry had committed and they just changed Tywan to "Ty" this year.

Squid90, I see your point regarding their education, although committed or not, this kids still need to meet the NCAA clearing house standards. I actually think if you are looking from someone to blame however, it should be the NBA if anyone. At least when kids could go straight from highschool into the draft coaches knew where they stood with them, now these one and doners are like fools gold and you almost have to cast a wider net.

Creating national "divas" out of 16 y/o kids is ridiculous .... but so is the Iowa Caucus and any publicity for Britany Spears.

Me and Bill Friday and Deano will sit quietly in the corner and mumble "repeal freshman eligibility".

Roy does what he has to do under the current rules. Getting "committments" from non-seniors is simply the latest bite out of the elephant of a system so far out of control that common sense is not even an option.

Roy did not recruit JamesOn Curry. In fact, he retracted the offer that Matt Doherty had made prior to the drug arrest. Roy's career record on recruiting "high character kids" may be even better than Dean's.

Williams is a good coach. He recruits players with his style of play and coaching. Players want to run the floor and score. I'm surprised point guards aren't lining up for scholarship offers. I guess that just shows how competitive the recruiting of high school players is. Williams, Kryzewski (sp), and Paul Hewitt of Ga Tech are all very fine coaches and recruiters. That's three in the same league. (I'm not purposely omitting Lowe, he's only been there for 1 full year) Now take that and put it in every conference in America. That's a lot of competition to get the best players.

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