Malachi Moreno trimmed his list of school from over 30 who had offered to eight finalists on Monday.

The nation's No. 22 ranked rising senior, and second highest rated center included North Carolina in the group that also is made up of Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisville, Notre Dame, and Ohio State.

The Tar Heel coaching staff had been following the 7-foot-1 big man since last winter. They saw him live in action during the Christmas holidays at Myrtle Beach with his Great Crossing squad that went 36-2. Contact has stayed pretty consistent, but it really began to pick up during the spring's AAU sessions.

UNC assistant, Sean May, texted Moreno after the Adidas 3SSB event in Birmingham to tell him Hubert Davis would be watching him the following weekend's live period in Bryan, Texas.

Davis did indeed watch him impress in the Lone Star State to the extent that he offered just as soon as the weekend concluded.

'“I talked to Coach May, and he told me Coach Davis was going to give me a call. I missed it the first time, so I called him back. I finally got on the phone with him, and we had about a 20 or 30 minute conversation about how I played, what he liked, and how I could fit in his program, fit his style, and different things like that. At the end of the conversation he said, ‘You have a scholarship to North Carolina, ”’ Moreno explained to Tar Heel Illustrated when we asked how the offer took place.