Coach Hubert Davis and his program has made offers to 13 recruits for the 2026 class, and 10 of them are five-stars.

One of them being Tajh Ariza, the son of longtime NBA wing, Trevor. 

However, before his scheduled visit to Chapel Hill, Ariza informed the Tar Heels that he will not be visiting anymore.

When recruits do something like this, it usually means that they have their mind made up already, and if we’re judging by his 247Sports page, he already has a top-three in mind.

Ariza visited USC, closer to his hometown, on August 29, and the following week visited Oregon. Later on in the month though, he has a visit scheduled with Kansas which he intends on fulfilling, according to Joe Tipton of On3 / Rivals.

Those three schools were labeled as “warm” interest which could indicate that a decision may be coming in the near future. 

To back up that claim, Rivals has given USC a 41% edge while Oregon currently sits at 27%.

Ariza cancelling his visit to UNC probably isn’t that much of a surprise, but what is a surprise is how close to the visit he cancelled it.

He’s a west coast kid, with his father having played most of his 1,100 game NBA career for west coast franchises. Not only that, Trevor attended UCLA, just 12 miles away from USC where he’s projected to go.

For the Tar Heels, they had also missed out on four-star recruit Toni Bryant, who had committed to Missouri on Monday.

A lot of higher-end recruits will target the early signing period when deciding the program they’ll commit to, and the hope around Chapel Hill is that the Tar Heels manage to secure one of the premier recruits.

UNC is viewed as a favorable option for Hillsborough, NC native Cole Cloer, the 6-foot-7 winger who can shoot the lights out of the ball – a trait that the Tar Heels can use. In the 2024-25 season, UNC ranked 218th in the nation in 3-point attempts, but it did rank 79th in 3-point percentage.

Cloer has begun his official visits, having already visited NC State and Florida. However, coming up later this month, he’ll be visiting UCONN and Kentucky, and in October, he’ll have a two-day visit at Arkansas, followed by visits to UNC and Alabama.

There’s still plenty of time until college basketball’s early signing period, but losing out on Ariza and his dynamic skillset is ultimately a big blow to the program.