North Carolina the early favorite to land one of nation’s best point guard recruits
It looks like North Carolina is already the team to beat for an elite point guard and one of the best overall basketball recruits in the class of 2023.
247Sports national analyst Jerry Meyer was among the first to log a Crystal Ball prediction in favor of UNC for Robert Dillingham, a star point guard who received a scholarship offer from the Tar Heels on Christmas Eve.
Dillingham — a 6-foot-2, 160-pound prospect from Charlotte — is the No. 10 overall player in the 2023 class, according to the latest 247Sports rankings. He’s in his sophomore year at the upstart Combine Academy in North Carolina, a new private school that could turn into one of the nation’s next big prep basketball powerhouses. Former UNC point guard Jeff McInnis is the team’s head coach.
Kansas, Florida and several other high-major programs had already extended scholarship offers to Dillingham, who has called UNC his “dream school” and could continue a run of prominent in-state commitments for the Tar Heels, who landed Day’Ron Sharpe in the 2020 class and pulled in Coby White and Leaky Black two classes before that. UNC’s two commitments for the 2021 class — top 100 national players Dontrez Styles and D’Marco Dunn — are also from North Carolina.
There hasn’t been much early buzz related to Kentucky in Dillingham’s recruitment — and UNC now looks like a pretty clear favorite anyway — but the Wildcats do seem to be well-positioned to land a star point guard in the 2023 class.
DJ Wagner, the No. 1 overall player in the class, is the son of former John Calipari star Dajuan Wagner, and Kentucky should be the heavy favorite for him if he decides to play college basketball. The No. 2-ranked point guard in the class — Indiana native Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn — recently told 247Sports that UK has always been his dream school.
