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UNC's Michael Malone is Winning Big Recruiting Battles and Others Should be Scared
- Story by
- UNC's Michael Malone is Winning Big Recruiting Battles and Others Should be Scared
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
North Carolina's basketball season will start on Monday night, but Michael Malone and the program got some great news last Friday when it was announced that Demarcus Henry, the No. 2 player in the 2027 high school class, announced his commitment to the Tar Heels.
Malone, who is going to do an excellent job recruiting because of what he's done throughout his NBA career and is now trying to do at UNC, is going to be in a position to win a lot of these recruiting battles.
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What makes everything more interesting with a guy like Henry is that he's the highest-rated recruit since Cole Anthony committed to UNC in 2019. Harrison Barnes was the No. 1 ranked player in 2010, the only player that Henry is technically ranked behind, according to ESPN.
In regard to why Henry decided to commit to North Carolina, these decisions are never easy.
When we start factoring in NIL money now, those problems become even bigger than they were a couple of years ago.
UNC has a ton of money to spend and is also going to put itself in a position to win a lot of recruiting battles because of that, but there are still other factors that are at play here, especially for a kid like Henry who could go to any school in the country and is being offered big money by multiple programs.
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According to the young man, a lot of it was because of what Malone has done in his career as a championship NBA head coach.
"Their vision for me fits exactly what I'm looking for," Henry told ESPN . "Coach Malone and I are like-minded. He constantly emphasizes chasing greatness, and I really like his winning mentality. He won an NBA championship at the highest level, with the best players in the world, and I want to learn from him."
"Coach Malone, Coach Chuck Martin, and Coach Sean May always emphasized that I was a priority. I could always feel how much they believed in me," Henry said. "Coach Malone was relentless in recruiting me. He was in Mexico at my USA Basketball games; he was at almost every one of my games, and he was at my school on the first day of contact."
Making guys priorities, as Henry touched on, is also a way to win a lot of these battles.
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When a player is as highly regarded as the young man, North Carolina has to do something to stand out. Not that the Tar Heels brand doesn't sell itself, but as we spoke about a couple of months ago when Malone got the job, it felt like this was going to put North Carolina at the top.
Whether that ends up being the case remains to be seen, as we can't judge everything off one recruiting win, but this is a really good sign of what's to come.
