4-star guard Kerwin Walton commits to North Carolina over Arizona, Minnesota, others

While the Arizona Wildcats have added a wealth of international talent in this recruiting cycle, they have struggled to strike gold in the States. That continued Monday when four-star shooting guard Kerwin Walton committed to the North Carolina Tar Heels.

The Hopkins, Minnesota native was originally going to pick a school Saturday but delayed his decision a couple days, reportedly because he was torn between UNC and Minnesota. He was also considering Arizona, Creighton, Vanderbilt, and Georgetown.

The 6-foot-5 swingman is the No. 99 recruit and No. 17 shooting guard in the 2020 class, per 247Sports composite rankings.

Walton was teammates with former UA forward Zeke Nnaji at Hopkins High School, though evidently Nnaji’s emergence at Arizona didn’t have much pull with Walton, who would have been the second American-born player in UA’s 2020 class.

That group currently consists of Dalen Terry (Phoenix), Daniel Batcho (France), Kerr Kriisa (Estonia) and Bennedict Mathurin (Canada).

Arizona still has two scholarships left to fill. They recently offered four-star Turkish forward Tibet Gorener, whose outside shooting is much-needed at this point. That would have been the big boon of adding Walton, who shot over 40 percent from 3 as a junior and senior in high school. His length and defensive potential would have been a bonus.