It looks as though North Carolina has its next dual-sport athlete: Keeshawn Silver.
Silver, a 4-star defensive end in the 2021 recruiting class, committed to North Carolina back in March; he’s one of the stars of Mack Brown’s ballyhooed 2021 group. A native of Rocky Mount, N.C., the 6-foot-4, 270-pound Silver rates as the No. 63 overall prospect for the 2021 football recruiting cycle. 247 Sports ranks Silver as the No. 3 prospect in the state of North Carolina, too.
On Monday evening, though, Silver announced in a tweet that he plans to join North Carolina’s basketball program, too, as a walk-on.
I will be playing both sports 🐏💙 pic.twitter.com/ctV0ifAOqm
— Keeshawn Silver (@_jumpman74) July 20, 2020
Of course, UNC is famous for producing Julius Peppers, who appeared in 56 games for the basketball program (1999-01). During the 2000-01 season, Peppers averaged 7.1 points per game while shooting 64.3 percent from the field. Peppers was also a contributor on the 2000 UNC team — Bill Guthridge’s final season as head coach — that went to the Final Four.
Former UNC quarterback Ronald Curry was a part of the 2000-01 basketball team (which won 26 games) with Peppers: 28 games, 5.5 points and 4.3 assists per game. That was one of two seasons that Curry played basketball while at UNC; Curry was also a member of the 1998-99 team.
With Roy Williams as basketball coach, a trio of wide receivers double dipped, playing basketball as walk-ons, too: Jesse Holley, Greg Little (2007-08) and Brooks Foster.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Holley appeared in 10 games during North Carolina’s 2004-05 national title season. Foster was also a part of that 2005 squad.
As far as future scholarship basketball prospects go, North Carolina has one 2021 commitment, so far: in-state 4-star forward Dontrez Styles.
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