CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) — North Carolina men’s basketball head coach Hubert Davis has officially landed his fifth transfer this offseason.
On Friday, the Tar Heels announced that James Okonkwo, a rising junior who spent the past two years at West Virginia, is joining the team.
The 6 foot 8 Okonkwo blocked 22 shots for the Mountaineers last season, leading the team in that category. He was also second on the team in field goal percentage, shooting 57.4% from the floor.
“We are thrilled to have James and his family join our UNC basketball family,” Davis said in a statement. “We needed another experienced big man that could do multiple things on the floor, both offensively and defensively. James checks all those boxes. He’s also a wonderful kid, a great student and fits perfectly with the makeup of this team.”
Okonkwo, a native of Maidenhead, England, played for Great Britain’s U20 Team in the Division B European Championships in Macedonia earlier this summer. Over seven games, he lead Team GB in scoring (12.1 points per game), rebounding (9.9 rebounds per game) and blocked shots (2.1 blocks per game).
Davis and his staff have worked to entice several transfers this offseason to help rebuild a team that lost seven players to the transfer portal: guards Caleb Love, D’Marco Dunn; forwards Puff Johnson, Justin McKoy, Dontrez Styles, and Tyler Nickel; and center Will Shaver. They also lost forwards Leaky Black and Pete Nance to eligibility limits.
Okonkwo joins transfer guards Cormac Ryan (Notre Dame) and Paxson Wojcik (Brown), forwards Harrison Ingram (Stanford) and Jae’Lyn Withers (Louisville) as newcomers to Chapel Hill.
