On August 16th, UNC announced a commitment from former Georgia Tech forward Tzyhaun Claude, which appeared peculiar.
Claude, who began at Morehead State before moving to Western Carolina and later Tech, appeared somewhat repetitive. UNC boasts multiple bigs, including Jalen Washington, Jae’Lyn Withers, James Brown, Ven-Allen Lubin, and Zayden High.
Now it makes more sense, but there’s still some ambiguity because Zayden High has been “removed” from UNC’s roster and is no longer enrolled.
According to Inside Carolina, “multiple sources said High’s status was in limbo for much of the offseason due to an off-the-court matter.” The ultimate conclusion to that matter was for him to serve a suspension from school and sit out the upcoming season.
An off-court matter? If it were somewhere other than UNC, you’d assume there was an academic issue, but everyone knows UNC hasn’t cared about academics in a long time, as seen by the terrible academic fraud scandal of the last decade. And it wasn’t just the controversy; it was how UNC handled it that highlighted how much more important athletics were at UNC than academics.
Whatever transpired, High is expected to return to the club next season, but in the portal era, this may not be possible.
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