Michael Malone’s 2026 recruiting class will be an important one for the first-year head coach. Taking over near the end of a recruiting cycle is never an easy feat.
Malone and his staff were able to keep two commitments in Maximo Adams and Malloy Smith while also adding Kevin Thomas and international prospect Sayon Keita. For only having a few weeks with the 2026 cycle, Malone did a good job. And now those players are getting their final rankings by 247Sports. The site released its final ranking for the 2026 class and two Tar Heels cracked the top 100 on the list.
Adams led the way with a ranking of No. 30 overall, followed by Thomas who checked in at No. 85 overall, just a few days after committing to the program.
Smith didn’t earn a ranking, nor did Keita. However, for Keita that’s because he’s an international prospect for the 2026 class. He would be one of the top freshman centers in the class if that weren’t the case. North Carolina’s class checks in at No. 8 overall in the rankings and are No. 15 in the composite rankings.
