Three-Point Play: North Carolina, Caleb Murphy, HS team camps

A pair of rising senior teammates have caught the eye of North Carolina. In today’s edition of the Three-Point-Play national basketball analyst Eric Bossi breaks down the Heels’ newest targets, looks at a Georgia guard that should be landing more offers and gives props to the NCAA.

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2020 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position

2021 Rankings: Rivals150

At one of the nation’s top basketball programs, Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha, teammates Hunter Dickinson and Earl Timberlake have formed a formidable duo. The seven-foot tall Dickinson has manned the paint while Timberlake has provided a tough and athletic presence on the wing. For their efforts, they are ranked No. 28 and No. 29 in the 2020 Rivals150.

On Monday, they both added offers from Roy Williams and the North Carolina Tar Heels.

So, what kind of players are the potential UNC targets and who else is involved?

I’ll start with Dickinson. A veritable mountain of a man for a teenager, Dickinson is more of a traditional, space-eating, throwback big man. He plays around the rim where he uses his strength and deft touch on jump hooks. But, he can also face up and shoot and has great hands.

He’s visited Louisville, Notre Dame, Providence and Purdue officially and told Rivals.com just a few weeks ago that he felt pretty good about those schools and wasn’t sure he would take visits to any new schools. Could the Carolina offer change that? We’ll see.

As for Timberlake, I joked during the spring that he’s the best heavyweight boxing prospect who I have ever seen play high school basketball. The guy is ripped, plays with tremendous physicality and if anybody has ever had the guts to challenge him to a fight, I doubt he’s lost many. But, Timberlake is also a pretty skilled basketball player. He gets to the rim, he makes smart passes, he rebounds and he’s a big-time defender who can switch from point guards all the way to power forwards because of his athletic gifts.

Timberlake has taken a pair of official visits himself – to Providence and South Carolina – and just two weeks ago told us that Alabama, Seton Hall and Pitt were under consideration for visits. In addition to the UNC offer, he’s also added offers from NC State, Miami and Cal, so his recruitment has really taken off.

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Over the weekend, super athletic and hard-playing guard Caleb Murphy of Loganville (Ga.) Grayson received an offer from Arkansas.

Given his athleticism, motor, the way he gets to the rim and how he impacts the game on both ends of the floor, the offer made sense to me. What surprised me, though, that the Arkansas offer was only his second offer from a high major program after USF offered him back in May. That doesn’t seem right to me and I’m expecting it will change because there is no doubt in my mind that Murphy can help out teams in the SEC and ACC.

Now, I can’t be calling out college coaches for not offering Murphy because we don’t currently have him ranked in the Rivals150 and that’s on us. I will say this, though, if we re-did the rankings today then Murphy would be in and in addition to all of his athletic gifts and what he can do in the open floor and as a defender, he’s got promise as an off-the-dribble scorer.

Bottom line, Murphy is really good. He’s improving rapidly and it will be a surprise if more high major programs don’t toss scholarship offers his way like Arkansas and USF have been ahead of the curve in doing.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t like the NCAA’s changes to spring and summer recruiting that went into effect for this year’s recruiting cycle. I felt many of the proposals limited opportunities for exposure, gave more power to shoe company teams than ever before and seemed to be opposite of what they were going for. But, I also want to be first in line to say that the NCAA got it 1,000 percent right with this year’s edition of June evaluation periods at state-sanctioned high school events.

Yes, there’s still some kinks to get worked out – several states chose to sit out after the NCAA basically implemented the idea without consulting them – but after attending the Georgia High School Association’s team camp in the Atlanta area over the weekend. I loved the idea. It was fun to see kids with their high school teams. The level of play was high, the gyms were packed and it was beneficial to everybody involved.

All of the coaches and players I spoke to in Atlanta and those I spoke to who attended similar events around the country felt the same as I did. There will be a second weekend of high school evaluation this week and I hope this change is here for good. I also hope next year the lines of communication will be opened enough that every state participates and that there are no players left out.