According to several news sources that have been in touch with Justin’s uncle, Darien Knox, (including Inside Carolina, FOX’s Jeff Goodman, and the News & Observer) it looks as though the Alabama transfer plans to join UNC in the fall.
Knox, who has played three seasons for the Crimson Tide, is a 6-foot-9, 240-pound forward who plans to graduate from Alabama this summer and enroll at North Carolina as a graduate student. Under the NCAA’s graduate student waiver program, he should be eligible to play for the Tar Heels immediately if he chooses a degree program that Alabama does not offer.
“Everyone in the family is excited,” said Damien Knox, Justin’s uncle, who announced the commitment. “Everyone in the family is looking forward to Justin becoming a Tar Heel.”
Knox apparently plans to make a statement to the media at some point today, so barring any Terrance Jones-esque theatrics, it seems like Carolina will be able to at least plug someone into the low-post rotation who has big-time basketball experience, relieving a lot of the pain brought on by losing the Wear twins.
This is probably the best-case scenario for the Heels as they get a solid rotation guy who we know will only be there for one year, leaving Williams to still recruit for that scholarship spot in the class of 2011. Knox probably gets to be in a good situation as well, contributing to a (hopefully) top-25 team and I’m sure he’ll have no shortage of fans once he arrives on campus - I imagine he’ll get some big, big cheers when he’s introduced at Late Night next year.
I do have to feel a little bad for Kadeem Jack, a kid who had initially planned to go to prep school for an additional year, then had college basketball’s two winningest programs ever talking to him about coming to Kentucky or UNC, only to have both schools find other solutions to their low-post issues elsewhere. There’s still an outside chance Carolina could continue to pursue Jack, but for a product that’s supposedly still pretty raw, I don’t know if Roy will want to bring him in. Best of luck to the young man regardless of what happens.
