ACC Roundup - UNC Picks Up A Recruit And Speculation On Wake Forest’s Search

It’s been a slow off-season but at times there is news and this is one of those times.

First, UNC picked up another recruit, 6-5 Kerwin Walton from Minnesota. He’s a Top 100 recruit (at #99 barely though) and is a well-regarded shooter.

He joins a big class with five-star recruits Day’Ron Sharpe, Caleb Love and Walker Kessler and four-star guys R.J. Davis and Puff Johnson.

Second, former NC State center Omer Yurtseven has declared for the NBA Draft and will not return to Georgetown. He’s been in school for four years so he might be ready to graduate or at least within shouting distance.

And third, the speculation on Wake Forest’s next coach is heating up. Out: John Beilein, as several sources said he’s not interested. Possibly in: former Ohio State coach Thad Matta.

Very successful at Butler, Xavier (where he gave Duke a tremendous game in the 2003-04 Elite Eight, Matta ultimately left coaching for health reasons, part of which was a back injury that made it impossible for him to control his foot.

If his health issues are resolved since stepping down in 2017, Matta could be a great coach for Wake (and also the third the school has plucked from Xavier following Bob Staack and Skip Prosser).

He’s 52 and could go 15-20 years in Winston-Salem. It’s an intriguing prospect and it would be hard for Wake Forest to do much better.

Wake has also seen three recruits bail as forward Jaylon Gibson of Raleigh, 6-5 Djimon Bailey of Wilson and 6-10 Trey James out of Kentucky will seek other schools.

For what it’s worth, here are some odds on the various candidates including a couple of new names to us: Russell Turner from UC-Irvine and Earl Grant from Charleston.