UNC basketball target Matthew Mayer trims transfer list, can make visits after dead period
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina basketball has made the cut as one of the finalists to land Baylor transfer Matthew Mayer, and he perhaps could visit the Tar Heels as soon as this weekend, when a dead period lifts on the NCAA recruiting calendar.
The versatile and experienced wing forward has trimmed his list of potential NCAA transfer portal destinations to four programs, with UNC joined by Illinois, Memphis and Texas Tech, per reports Thursday.
Mayer has been in contact with North Carolina since entering the portal just prior to the May 1 deadline. He’ll be a fifth-year senior next season, after maintaining his college eligibility while going through the NBA pre-draft process, which allows prospects to work out and meet with NBA teams for the purpose of gaining feedback on their professional standing.
The skilled 6-foot-9 Mayer participated in the NBA Draft Combine last week in Chicago. He said last weekend that he would withdraw from the draft pool, well before the June 1 deadline to pull out of NBA consideration.
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One of the handful of dead periods on the NCAA men’s basketball recruiting calendar runs from May 19-27, meaning campus visits become permitted again on Saturday. Alabama, Arkansas and Southern California also reached out after Mayer, who’s from Austin, Texas, entered the transfer portal.
Coach Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels saw Mayer up close in March. UNC escaped No. 1 seed Baylor in overtime that day in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32, a special victory along the course of the team’s magical ride to the Final Four and national championship game.
Mayer supplied 9.8 points and 5 rebounds per game this past season, his fourth year in the Big 12 Conference at Baylor, while shooting 40.9% from the field and 32.4% from 3-point range. He came off the bench and connected on 39.5% of his 3-point attempts for Baylor’s 2020-21 team that won the NCAA title. He scored 8.1 points per game during that season, a key contributor and capable defender in a defined role for the Bears.
Mayer played against former North Carolina standout Brady Manek in Big 12 matchups across three seasons. The 6-9 Manek was a four-year starter at Oklahoma, before choosing UNC as his transfer destination last spring. Manek authored a portal success story in Chapel Hill, an essential piece of the core that powered the Tar Heels to the brink of claiming the NCAA championship.
Reserve guard Kerwin Walton’s last-minute move to enter the portal opened up a scholarship for the Tar Heels, and forwards on the transfer market who blend size and skill such as Mayer seem to offer beneficial fits to the roster, particularly given the invaluable addition Manek proved to be this past season.
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Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC basketball recruiting: Matthew Mayer has Tar Heels as finalists
