Sign Of The Times: UNC Loses In-State Recruit To FSU

There was a time when UNC simply got the big targets it was after. James Worthy, JR Reid, Phil Ford, Michael Jordan.

All of those except for Reid were in-state too. Some guys got away - David Thompson and Buck Williams for instance - but for the most part, UNC controlled recruiting in North Carolina and much of South Carolina and Virginia.

The idea that an in-state recruit would pick Florida State over UNC?

Laughable.

Of course that was when Dean Smith ran the show. But Bill Guthridge and Matt Doherty did okay recruiting-wise and Roy Williams did very well until the academic scandals really damaged recruiting (for example, Brandon Ingram said he would probably have picked UNC over Duke if things had been quiet on the scandal front in Chapel Hill).

And in fairness, Hubert Davis hasn’t coached a game and a certain amount of decay has set in and Williams was recruiting De’Ante Green to play for for him, not Davis. Things have changed in other words and it’s not clear yet exactly what that means.

Still, it’s amazing that a kid from Swannanoa, who played his high school ball at Asheville Christian, chose FSU over UNC. It speaks volumes about the program that Leonard Hamilton has built.

Davis is a promising coach and will likely be an excellent recruiter soon enough. Keeping talented players in-state would be a good start.