{"id":742356,"date":"2026-05-24T01:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742356\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:27:16","slug":"the-north-carolina-tar-heels-basketball-team-fears-losing-several-top-international-recruits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742356\/","title":{"rendered":"The North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team fears losing several top international recruits"},"content":{"rendered":"

The North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team fears losing several top international recruits<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First-year North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Mike Malone could be in serious trouble after the NCAA just rolled out \u201cupdated preenrollment eligibility requirements largely surrounding compensation and professional team involvement,\u201d per Sports Illustrated\u2019s Kevin Sweeney<\/a>. Not only was Malone\u2019s top remaining target<\/a> an international pro, but one of the top guys already signed to the 2026 class could also be affected by this guidance.<\/p>\n

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Keeping it Heel\u2019s Josh Yourish<\/a> relayed the fears the program has about not getting the chance to land Panathinaikos big man Alexandros Samodurov and\/or keep FC Barcelona\u2019s Sayon Keita.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not yet clear if, when, and how this guidance will be enforced, but the goal is to push back against the growing trend of former professional players, both international and from American professional leagues such as the NBA and the G League,\u201d Yourish wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat effort could put Keita and UNC\u2019s other center target, Alexandros Samodurov, squarely in the crosshairs, and if enforced across college basketball for this year\u2019s recruiting class, it could leave Keita ineligible and prevent Malone from closing the deal with Samodurov.\u201d<\/p>\n

The health of Malone\u2019s 2026 class was reliant on these international stars. Without them, UNC would sit even further behind the Duke Blue Devils<\/a>, who have run circles around them in domestic recruiting.<\/p>\n

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It makes you wonder if Malone\u2019s hiring was under different pretenses than what was expected from the sport this coming season.<\/p>\n

Michael Malone may have been hired at UNC to be an international whisperer<\/p>\n

After his success with Nikola Jokic on the Denver Nuggets, perhaps the plan in Chapel Hill was for Malone to be an international whisperer. Maybe it\u2019s why two international big men were made priorities.<\/p>\n

Malone broke the mold for a Tar Heels head coach. He\u2019s not a Dean Smith coaching tree product. He hasn\u2019t coached in college hoops in 25 years, and it was with the Manhattan Jaspers in the MAAC.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if North Carolina gets what they paid for this winter. It may not be the international specialist he was planning to be with Keita and Samodurov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team fears losing several top international recruits originally appeared on The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[91594,7,217,187,4974,9696,6138,231,772,1544,1770,26410,35481],"class_list":["post-742356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-alexandros-samodurov","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-international-stars","tag-kevin-sweeney","tag-mike-malone","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-professional-team","tag-sayon-keita"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116626957522156593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}