Cone On UNC Radar

Jalen Cone will always be the basketball prospect that has to prove himself over and over again. The 5-10 sophomore sensation from Walkertown High School in North Carolina doesn't have the ideal high major Division 1 size for a point guard or a combo-guard role on the college level.

Some college coaches may hesitate due to his lack of size. Some scouts and basketball analysts may hesitate to rank him too high nationally because he's not your prototypical ACC lead guard who is 6-2 or taller.

But once you watch Cone in action, all of those hesitations go away. The speedy guard can leap effortlessly over guys a foot taller than himself. And if they're not careful, he will put them on a poster.

Cone has it all. Elite scoring ability, incredible speed and quickness, unbelievable balance and defensive ability. He can shoot it with range. He can also pass the ball at a high level and run an offense as a scoring point guard.

He spoke with THI about his season, which just ended last week.

"This season has been historical," he said. "I know from day one, I came to set a statement that I'm one of the best players in the state of North Carolina, regardless of class. And I'm one of the top 2020 players nationally. My statistics were the easy part of the season, due to my work ethic in preseason and during the season."

"As a team, we did a phenomenal job and won our school's first conference title and brought home their first winning schedule and went two rounds in the playoffs."

Cone who already has a handful of mid and high major offers, said that he's seen an uptick in his recruitment these last few months. And he told THI that his AAU coach recently received a call from the North Carolina basketball staff, as they've expressed some genuine interest.

"More high major schools have been contacting me," he said. "But a lot of schools I've learned, have been holding off on offers waiting to see how I compete against summer talent."

Cone plans to play with Team Loaded NC this spring and summer on the Adidas Gauntlet circuit.

He ran down some of the schools.

"Hampton, Virginia Tech, UNCG and High Point University have offered. Xavier, Clemson, Wake, NC State, UNC, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State, Kentucky and Portland have all showed interest."

Naturally, we asked him to elaborate on the new interest from the defending National champs in Chapel Hill.

"They want to get me on campus to tour and meet the coaching staff. I'm excited to have a school such as UNC recruiting me and I'm a North Carolina kid."

Cone says that he'll try to take a visit soon.

"Now that the season has come to an end for me I'd like to get up there before summer ball starts."