North Carolina’s first official visit of portal season has yielded its first commitment. Belmont forward Cade Tyson will transfer to UNC, he announced on Sunday. Tyson has two years of eligibility remaining.
“He’s a great shooter and very versatile,” a source close to the UNC program told Inside Carolina. “He can play — and defend — multiple positions and is a good rebounder. (They) love that he wants to work.”
The 6-foot-7 sophomore forward was one of UNC’s first portal recruiting calls and an immediate top target. He averaged 16.2 points and 5.9 rebounds this season, shooting 46.5 percent on three-pointers, which ranked No. 2 nationally by the NCAA. Tyson was named to the Missouri Valley Conference Second Team. His shooting fills a critical offseason need for Hubert Davis’ Tar Heels, which are losing two of their best perimeter shooters in Cormac Ryan and Harrison Ingram. That duo combined to hit 140 three-pointers last season.
After entering the portal on March 25, Tyson was flooded with interest, communicating with more than 30 schools. Among those initially involved in his portal recruitment were Arkansas, Auburn, Duke, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Villanova, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In the end, Tyson chose the Tar Heels over Tennessee, the only other school he officially visited.
“He’s an extremely versatile offensive player,” said Nick Jones, an assistant coach at Huntersville (N.C.) Ambassador Christian and a former AAU coach of Tyson. “Many will think Cade is just a spot up shooter, but if you look at his usage this year at Belmont the numbers show he’s used as a playmaker. He can create off ball screens, as a scoring option on post ups, pin downs, and hand offs. Anyone looking to just slot him in the corner or on the weak side would be diminishing their potential returns.”
As a freshman, Tyson averaged 13.6 points and 4.6 rebounds, shooting 41.7 percent on threes and earning Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year honors. Tyson’s brother, Hunter, played at Clemson and is a rookie this season with the Denver Nuggets.
“Cade has always competed with an edge,” Jones said. “You can definitely tell he had to win backyard battles versus his big brother growing up. He rebounds well for his size which helps in the transition game because he can make plays with the ball in his hands.”
Tyson is 247Sports’ No. 26-ranked player in the transfer portal. 247Sports director of scouting Adam Finkelstein, who calls Tyson “one of the best shooters in the country,” authored the following scouting report:
“Tyson has good size at 6-foot-7, and although we haven’t seen official measurements, he looks long too. There’s typically an inverse relationship between length and shooting, so that combination would make him very unique and help compensate for the lack of elite athleticism that could be more problematic at the high-major level than it has been thus far, particularly on the defensive end of the floor.
“With the shooting, he’s not just extremely efficient, he’s also versatile in terms of the type of shots he can make. He makes shots on the move, off hand-offs, off the dribble, over top of contesting defenders, and in various types of screening actions. He shoots almost 60% on unguarded jumpers, per Synergy Sports, which ranks in the 99th percentile – so defenders can’t leave him or help off him. That benefits the rest of your offense, even when he doesn’t touch the ball. He’s also a threat to attack close-outs, score in the mid-range area, and is a deceptively effective finisher according to the numbers.”
Tyson’s former teammate at Belmont Ja’Kobi Gillespie — who recently committed to Maryland — told the Valley Hoops Inside podcast that Tyson’s impact was felt well beyond the court.
“He’s a great guy… he always wants to do stuff with us, his teammates, and he’s always the one texting in the group chat, ‘let’s go eat as a group,'” Gillespie said. “So he’s took on the leader role and he works super hard in basketball, I think he’s definitely in the gym most out of all of us.”
Unranked out of Matthews (N.C.) Carmel Christian School, Tyson was named North Carolina’s Mr. Basketball in 2022. He chose Belmont over offers from Charlotte, Mercer, UNC-Wilmington, Western Carolina, Radford, and Coastal Carolina.
