Dereck Lively is a name we have been watching closely in the 2022 class for a couple of months.

When we spoke to Lively's AAU coach, Wayne Jones of Team Final, back in October, it was evident that there was legitimate interest from North Carolina in the 6-foot-11 junior. The Tar Heel coaching staff kept building that relationship over time, and on Friday Roy Williams felt enough due diligence had been served, and offered the four-star from Pennsylvania.

North Carolina now joins a stacked field of programs like Florida, Florida State, Georgetown, LSU, Maryland, Memphis, Miami, Ohio State, Penn State, Pitt, Providence, SMU, Temple, UCLA Washington, and Xavier.

Despite all of the interest from the college basketball world, Lively indicated toTar Heel Illustrated Saturday that this offer wasn't your average run of the mill type.