Wednesday afternoon, North Carolina and first-year head coach Hubert Davis received good news for the fourth time in the class of 2022 when four-star forward Tyler Nickel announced that he is committing to UNC.
Ranked No. 79 nationally by 247Sports, Nickel is a 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward from Elkton (Va.) East Rockingham who just visited Chapel Hill last weekend. The question, now, is what does he bring to the table and how does he fit with the Heels' 2022 class?
First, some background.
Nickel was first brought to my attention by his high school coach Carey Keyes during his sophomore year. At the time he was more of a true small forward who could slash and showed tremendous promise as a jump shooter. Since then, Nickel has continued his strong jump shooting and along the way he's grown a couple of inches, gotten much stronger and added to his low post game.
Given his size, strength and skill, I would actually say that he's now more of a combo forward than a traditional wing. You can play him as a big three man, but he's also a potentially dangerous mismatch as a small ball four who can spread the floor without sacrificing too much size or rebounding when he's on the defensive end.
I don't expect Davis and his staff to change too much from the Roy Williams days, but I do think that they'll be open to getting away from more traditional two-big man sets and positioning shooters on the floor. I also think they'll encourage their bigs to let it fly a little more from deep and I can see that with the class that they've built.
Top 150 big man Will Shaver from Alabama likes to face up, top 50 center Jalen Washington from Indiana can shoot the ball. Shaver needs to beef up his post game and rebound a bit more, but he'll also arrive early to campus and redshirt during the second half of the 2021-22 season, which will be beneficial. Washington has all of the tools to be a high end ACC big man, he just needs to get and stay healthy.
At the end of the day, though, I feel that Nickel is a good fit to play with these guys as Davis and his staff look to build a roster full of interchangeable parts. Do I expect Nickel to come in and go crazy as a freshman? No. But guys like him tend to turn into very good players throughout their careers and I would not be at all surprised if Nickel develops into at least a two-year starter.
Of course, I can't forget the other member of North Carolina's recruiting class, top 30 point guard Seth Trimble. If you are wanting to spread the floor with shooters as they are looking to do, then a guy who can take advantage of an open lane to to get to the rim and create for himself and others is ideal. That's exactly what Trimble does. He is about as good as anybody in the class at getting into the lane to finish or find shooters and he does a pretty good job of taking the ball himself. In an ideal world he will improve as a jump shooter, but the more he is surrounded by shooters the more his lack of deep shooting can be minimized. It should also be noted that Trimble is an excellent on the ball defender.
All together, I like what Davis and his staff have been able to put together to this point for their first full recruiting class. It is clear that they value shooting and are looking to add some versatility and for those reasons I see Nickel as a tremendous fit for the class and somebody that should prove to be a good college player.
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September 16, 2021 at 02:13AM
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Tyler Nickel is a Strong Fit for North Carolina's 2022 Class - 247Sports
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