Carolina Misses on Recruit

[Patrick Yates]

Perhaps it is fitting, given that Duke missed on Monroe, but UNC missed on Imran Shumpert, who has verballed to Georgia Tech. Congrats to the jackets.

Obviously, UNC's miss is not as damaging as the Monroe situation, but it does brighten my day a very little bit.

We shouldn't get too giddy however. It is fairly obvious, given UNC's puported targets in the 2009 class, that Shumpert is largely seen as insurance should UNC lose Ellington and Lawson this year. If they only lose one of the two, Frasor could easily step in (moreso for Lawson). Also, the Green/Ginyard option is always available. Had Shumpert chosen UNC, he likely would have been recruited over, almost immediately.

Also, I think GT is a better fit for the kid, given his skills and how Hewitt uses his guards, so this was probably the right decision for Shumpert, regardless of other considerations.

All-in-all, not a great week for recruiting on Tobacco Road.

Patrick Yates

[Scoring Point]

The local spin here in Chicago is that Shumpert really wants to be a full-time PG in college, not a combo or SG, which makes the choice of Tech over UNC quite logical, given that the Heels already have PG commits from the 08 and 10 classes. Marquette, Shumpert's other finalist, is really feeling jilted though, as they had viewed Shumpert as the successor to Dominic James.

[Ignatius07]

Shumpert is wise for his age to realize that it is easier to transition from point to shooting guard in the NBA than the other way around. But I don't buy that he was going to be "recruited over" at Carolina. He is scout.com's 15th best player in the class, which means in the Roy Williams offense he would probably be player a lot. Being recruited over at Duke in the past 6 years might have meant a drastic lessening of playing time, but the same is often not the case in Chapel Hill.