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Losing Simeon Wilcher is, literally, a big deal for the Tar Heels.
In these crazy days of free agency in college athletics, Carolina lost the incoming freshman before he enrolled in summer school. Wilcher, a 6-4 combo guard who signed a letter of intent last fall, asked for and apparently has received his release so he can be free to attend another school.
This is a significant but not devastating loss for Hubert Davis, who still has time to pick up another player from the transfer portal. But right now it leaves him without an important piece of depth for the 2023-24 team. And if Davis doesn’t find another player of Simeon’s size and athletic ability, the Tar Heels will be thinner and slower on the perimeter than they had planned.
It is logical to assume that 5-star recruit Elliot Cadeau’s decision to reclassify and join the team this summer forced the hand of Wilcher, a 4-star prospect who had hoped to be in contention for a starting position. Had he come as expected, Wilcher and 6-3 sophomore Seth Trimble would still have been the backups to point guard Cadeau and senior “2 guard” R.J. Davis with both receiving important minutes.
Carolina has lost some serious flexibility coming off the bench against teams with bigger backcourts than the 6-2 Cadeau and 6-foot Davis, who will have trouble matching up with taller athletic guards all through the college game. UNC now has three scholarships open and is obviously back to pursuing perimeter players in the portal.
Graduate transfers Cormac Ryan and Paxson Wojcik, both 6-5, can play shooting guard but do not have the speed and pure athletic ability to run, jump and dunk full court with Cadeau as does Wilcher, the No. 46 player in the high school class of 2023. Hopefully, this is the last departure while Davis tries to pull some added depth out of the hat.
Wilcher committed to play in Chapel Hill in October of 2021 and was also offered by Auburn, UCLA, Oregon, Illinois and Memphis, but now look for new St. John’s coach Rick Pitino to enter the fray for the nearby New Jersey prep All-American who is likely the best player still available from his class.
This is certainly not the highest profile recruiting reversal for Carolina, which way back in 1970 lost national prep player of the year Tom McMillen to Maryland during the week he was scheduled to enroll at UNC.
Because freshmen were not eligible for the varsity in those days, Dean Smith still could sign junior college transfer Robert McAdoo of Greensboro to arrive for the following season. Hubert Davis does not have that luxury of time.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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We need to play with five basketballs so everyone can have the ball all the time.
We need a basketball coach not everyone’s favorite youth pastor. 10 scholarship players and now 8 that have left. This is a joke and what we have coming in is nothing like the talent level we should have at UNC. A reclass PG and a mixed bag of vets all from bad teams last year. Maybe Louisville or ND have some more garbage off their single digit win teams we can grab and claim it makes us great.