Syracuse Basketball: Could Roy Williams news impact 4-star Justin Taylor?

Syracuse basketball is in a recruiting battle for elite 2022 wing Justin Taylor, who has numerous other scholarship offers from high-major squads such as North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana and Virginia Tech.

When it was disclosed that the four-star Taylor landed a UVA offer last December, and then a UNC offer this past February, that caught my attention.

Taylor, a 6-foot-6 junior at the St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Va., has numerous additional impressive offers, but the Cavaliers and the Tar Heels are fellow Atlantic Coast Conference foes.

So when the somewhat surprising word broke on Thursday that legendary North Carolina head coach Roy Williams, a three-time NCAA champion, is retiring, that got me thinking about Taylor, who is a top-100 prospect in his class according to the majority of recruiting Web sites.

Could Williams’ retirement lead Taylor, and other high-school players with offers from the Tar Heels, to look elsewhere? I don’t pretend to definitively know the answer to that question, but it will prove interesting to see how recruiting pans out for UNC in the short term.

Syracuse basketball 2022 four-star target Justin Taylor would be a huge get.

Zack Pearson, an expert for one of our sister sites, Keeping It Heel, published this excellent piece about Williams and North Carolina recruiting. Please have a read.

"In his story, Pearson writes in part, “As for the future classes, this does change a lot. … I’m positive Roy at least gave recruits he’s pursuing a heads up which indicates there is a plan in place for someone to take over. I can’t see a scenario where he wouldn’t tell recruits he’s actively pursuing about the news.”"

Now, what Taylor’s thinking is at this point about UNC remains unclear to me, but I’m also not in his inner circle by any means. This is also a lot of speculation for the time being, until a new head coach at North Carolina is named.

But does Williams’ impending retirement help the Orange’s chances to pick up Taylor? Maybe, maybe not. Along the same lines, Indiana has a new boss in former NBA head coach Mike Woodson.

The ‘Cuse also offered 2022 five-star forward Jarace Walker last June, and recruiting analysts for a while now have pegged the Tar Heels as one of the front-runners for him.

Beyond that, I have seen numerous articles over the last bunch of months mentioning that UNC has shown an interest in Syracuse basketball 2022 target J.J. Starling, a four-star point guard, as well as Orange 2023 four-star prospect G.G. Jackson, a talented power forward.

Williams’ retirement is a bombshell, and we’ll closely monitor how this development could influence, one way or another, the recruiting efforts of the ‘Cuse coaching staff.