It was a busy day around the Carolina Basketball program, as Carolina saw Armando Bacot announce his decision to return for his super senior season, and Puff Johnson enter the transfer portal, depleting the roster of any wing talent or depth. While that drew a lot of the attention and rightfully so, Hubert Davis and his staff stayed busy in the transfer portal, as they have reached out to Louisville transfer Jae’lyn Withers. Withers is a 6-9 forward, and has spent the last four seasons with the Cardinals, and has one year of eligibility remaining. This past season, Withers played in 32 games, and started 29 of them, averaging 8.9 points, while shooting 42% from behind the arc. He also grabbed 4.6 rebounds per game, as he was one of the only bright spots on a bad basketball team. In Louisville’s loss to UNC this season, Withers scored 8 points, on 3-9 shooting
Withers joins a list of players that Carolina has made contact with that includes Nick Timberlake, Paxson Wojcik and Kowaccie Reeves, but Withers might be the most enticing right now given the state of the Carolina roster. One thing that Hubert Davis has done when identifying players in the transfer portal, is targeting players that have played in power conferences. This year is the first year that he has gone after players from the mid-major level, but is leveling that out with power conference players.
Withers is going to be a highly sought after transfer, as he’s already been contacted by many ACC schools, including NC State, Miami, Pittsburgh, Clemson and Virginia Tech, along with other schools from power conferences like Florida, Illinois, and Ohio State. While every school is undergoing a roster makeover except for the teams still competing in the NCAA Tournament, not many schools are in dire need of wing players like UNC. Carolina has lost literally every wing player since the season has ended, as they lost Leaky Black to graduation, and Justin McKoy, Tyler Nickel and Dontrez Styles to the transfer portal. That means that Carolina has the most minutes, and the most opportunity to offer Withers, as he seeks a new home for his final season in college basketball.
With Bacot already back in the fold, and the belief that R.J. Davis will return for his senior season, Carolina currently has two members of its starting rotation for next season figured out. If Carolina were to land Withers, that would be a possible third starter for next season, but it also wouldn’t stop Hubert Davis from going after more transfer targets, as he’s busy rebuilding the roster in hopes of returning to the NCAA Tournament next season.
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