The Incoming Class

Get Sponsored Incoming Freshman Class to UNC

There are four players that have made commitments to North Carolina. These players include Joe Forte, Jason Parker, Jon Holmes, and Will Johnson. I have been able to find information about all of the players except Will Johnson. When more Information is availabe about these basketball players I will post it as soon as possible.

Joe Forte

• Height: 6-3

• Weight: 185

• Position: Guard

• High School: DeMatha

• PPG: 21.0

• RPG: 7.0

• Hometown: Hyattsville, MD

• College: North Carolina

Forte is one of the smoothest, pure shooters in this year's senior class. He has an effortless touch with the basketball, with range from just about every spot on the floor. Along with his DeMatha teammate and fellow All American Keith Bogans, Forte has destroyed some of the best teams in the nation, while dazzling fans with his deft shooting touch. This 6-3 high-flying guard plays much bigger than his frame. Forte will take his game to North Carolina next year, where he will have the chance to step in and make some big contributions with last year's McDonald's All American Game Most Valuable Player Ronald Curry.

Jason Parker

Jason Parker, one of the most powerful high school basketball players in the country, signed a national letter of intent with North Carolina on Monday night. Parker, 6 feet 8 and 250 pounds, made his official visit to UNC immediately after helping the ACC recruits to a 145-115 victory over the Southeastern Conference recruits in the Fila USA Hoops Challenge on Saturday night at N.C. State. Parker had 15 points and six rebounds and made seven of 10 shots from the floor. Parker said throughout the weekend that he didn't plan to sign until the last week in April, but he didn't hesitate when Carolina offered him a scholarship during his official visit. Michigan had recruited him hard and never wavered. People in his hometown told him that he could help lead UNC-Charlotte to national prominence. Yet Parker said Carolina is where he always dreamed of playing. He led West Charlotte to a 29-2 record and the state 4-A championship. The losses came in the Glaxo-Wellcome Holiday Invitational in Raleigh to eventual national champion Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill and to Durham Mount Zion. Parker averaged 20.1 points, 11.2 rebounds, four blocks and three assists as a senior for Coach Gosnell White. He was a two-time all-state selection and was the state's Associated Press high school player of the year in 1999. "What he is," said recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons, "is North Carolina's Elton Brand. He is an overpowering player. "The only thing he needs is to be pushed in practice, and he will be." UNC's returning frontline includes 7-0 sophomore Brendan Haywood, 6-11 sophomore Brian Bersticker, 6-10 freshman Kris Lang and 6-10 sophomore Vasco Evtimov. Parker said his biggest goal is to improve his college board scores so that he will meet NCAA minimum standards to play as a freshman. He would not be eligible at this point under the previous standards, but those standards now face a legal challenge. Parker can also continue to take the SAT in hopes of improving his scores. Parker is UNC's third recruit.

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USA Basketball announced Thursday that UNC recruit Jason Parker has been asked to join the 1999 Men’s Junior World Championship Team training camp. USA Basketball added West Charlotte High School's Parker, a UNC signee, to the training camp after Troy Murphy of Notre Dame, Quentin Richardson of DePaul, and Virginia’s Travis Watson withdrew for personal reasons. The training camp will take place July 3-8 at the campus of Arizona State in Tempe. The final 12-man roster will be announced by head coach Rob Evans of ASU near the completion of the camp. Wake Forest’s Dave Odom joins Evans on the coaching staff. The FIBA Junior World Championships will be held on July 15-25 in and around Lisbon, Portugal. The USA will open competition in the preliminaries in Group B on July 15 against China.

Jon Holmes

There are two ways of looking at the decision of the North Carolina coaching staff to give a scholarship to point guard Jon Holmes out of Indiana: 1. He was recruited to sit at the end of the bench and be no better than a third-stringer next season, playing behind Ed Cota and Ronald Curry. 2. He was recruited as a potential starter, with the possibility that Cota will turn pro after this year and Curry will still be playing football for the first half of the 1999-2000 roundball season. Holmes, a 6-footer with a point guard mentality shaped by being a coach’s son, committed to the Tar Heels last week just as soon as they offered a scholarship. That’s what he was waiting for. He had already received offers from Clemson, South Carolina and Texas. But Jon wanted to see if Carolina made an offer, said J.R. Holmes, Jon’s father and his coach at South High School in Bloomington, Ind. Coach (Bill) Guthridge offered Dec. 14, and that was it. Jon fell in love with the place when he visited in October. Everyone treated him very nice. My concern as a father is that I wanted to make sure if my son has a problem, he can go to the coaches, and they will help him. I know that would be the case at North Carolina. It has been that way a long time. Holmes is No. 1 in his class and has a 4.0 grade-point average. A four-year starter, he averaged 18.5 points and 3.9 assists as a junior. He is getting 18.2 points and 3.7 assists per game so far this season for a team ranked No. 1 in the state among 4-A schools. He is a career 90 percent free throw shooter. Jon is kind of an unknown, the elder Holmes said, but college coaches like the way he plays. He is a smart player and is a true point guard. He has had to score a lot for us, but in college, his job will be to get shots for others rather than take them himself. Jon knows that, and he knows how to get the ball to others. He makes his teammates better. J.R. Holmes said his son first attracted big-time coaches’ attention when he played in the AAU 16-under national championship tournament in Fayetteville in the summer of 1996. Larry Shyatt (the current Clemson head coach) was an assistant at Clemson then, and he really liked the way Jon played. They have shown interest ever since. Holmes joins wing guard Joe Forte in UNC’s recruiting class. The 6-4 Forte, of Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha, signed with the Tar Heels in November. Carolina is again on the trail of 6-8, 260-pound Jason Parker of West Charlotte. Ranked No. 3 nationally by the handbook, he is also considering UNC-Charlotte, Georgetown, and Michigan.