Justin Watts commits to UNC

The 2008 recruiting period is not over, and yesterday UNC signed Justin Watt (SG, 6′5″) out of Durham (reported by Scout.com). Watt is a four-year player who will probably help shore up the deficit left by Wayne Ellington.

Watts is listed as a forward by most sites, but his ballhandling is strong and he can slash to the basket. I would assume that would make him more of a Marcus Ginyard type player than an Ellington player, but I have not seen enough of him to really make that assessment. Time to tap my buddy’s player database again, I think.

Emmanul Negedu has Georgia Tech in his new list

Emmanul Negedu (6′7″, PF, 2008), who originally commited to Arizona, asked for and received a release from his LOI and has now officially opened his recruiting again. However, he already has a list of four schools: Georgia Tech, Indiana, Memphis and Tennessee.

Georgia Tech could turn a small recruiting year into a solid one with Negedu, who would join GT commit and Mickey D’s AA Iman Shumpert (6′4″, SG). Negedu is a Top 100 player who picked Arizona over Indiana and Tennessee previously, so those two schools would seem to be the two leaders, but no clear leader from Negedu yet.