The North Carolina Tar Heels are set to enter their first season in the Michael Malone era. After a disappointing end to last season, UNC is hoping to bounce back and get this program back on track.
So far in the few months Malone has been in charge, the program has built its 2026-27 roster through the 2026 recruiting class and the transfer portal. While players are on campus, they are getting ready for the upcoming year and getting acquainted with one another. However, there is one player who is not there yet and the hope is that he will be soon.
International big man Sayon Keita committed to North Carolina, but he has yet to arrive on campus. Is it time to panic about the situation? Not so fast.
As we saw last year with Luka Bogavac, student visas are never easy. That’s exactly what’s happening here.
“Keita is mostly dealing with student-visa stuff,” said Andrew Jones on Heel Report. “He’s getting paid as a student-athlete, so it’s not just a typical student-visa situation. But he’s going to be in Chapel Hill in August at some point.” He went on to say that there is no concerns from the UNC side about him arriving on time.
“There’s no concern about Keita not showing up,” Jones said. “Our own David Sisk spoke with three different very notable program sources last week, and they’re not concerned at all. They’d like Keita to be there now so he could start working and building chemistry, but they’re not concerned.”
The hope is Keita can get on campus sooner rather than later so that the chemistry can start to develop and he can get used to the college level.
