By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina is reportedly among the final four schools Rutgers center Clifford Omoruyi is considering.

Joe Tipton of On3.com reported Friday that his final four schools are Alabama, Georgetown, Kansas State and UNC, and that he will announce his plans on Sunday. Omoruyi visited the Carolina campus on Thursday.

The Tar Heels need a center after Armando Bacot exhausted his eligibility, with Jalen Washington, Zayden High and Jae’Lyn Withers returning.

On3.com ranks the 6–11, 240-pound shot-blocker from Benin City, Nigeria, who would be a graduate transfer, as the No. 3 center in the transfer portal and the No. 8 player overall.

Omoruyi (pronounced O-mor-ee) averaged 10.3 points and 7.7 rebounds, blocking 93 shots in 32 games last season for the Scarlet Knights. He also made the Big Ten All-Defensive Team, All-Big Ten honorable mention and was on the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year watch list.

“He’s a physically dominant big man who stands just shy of 7-feet with long arms and a chiseled frame,” said Adam Finkelstein, the director of scouting for 247Sports. “Offensively, Omoruyi does the vast majority of his damage in the paint, attempting 84% of his total shots at the rim per Pivot Analysis. While his hands were an area of concern in high school, they’ve made moderate gains in the last four years.”

According to KenPom, Omoruyi was third in the country in block percentage at 12.72% but is a career 59% shooter at the free-throw line.

An honor-roll engineering student, he blocked eight shots twice last season, against then-No. 24 Illinois on Dec. 2 and against Wisconsin on Feb. 10. Omoruyi had at least four blocks in 11 games last season and at least three blocks in 19 games. He was the first Big Ten player to record eight or more blocks in multiple league games since the 1999–2000 season.

Omoruyi’s career scoring high was 25 points against LIU on Dec. 16, and he scored at least 20 points eight times. He has 29 career double-doubles, including nine last season.

After four seasons at Rutgers, he ranks fourth in program history in field-goal percentage (54.9%), fourth in rebounds (933), sixth in blocks (221), 18th in field goals (506) and 22nd in points (1,251).

Coming out of high school at Roselle Catholic, he picked Rutgers over Arizona State, Auburn, Kentucky, UConn, Memphis, N.C. State, Miami, Alabama and Arizona, among others.

He was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 53 in the Class of 2020 by ESPN. That class included Day’Ron Sharpe at No. 12, Walker Kessler at No. 14, Caleb Love at No. 18, RJ Davis was No. 43, Dawson Garcia at No. 49 and Puff Johnson at No. 60.

Rutgers finished 15–17 last season, but Omoruyi was part of two teams that made the NCAA tournament. In 2021, the Scarlet Knights went 16–11 and earned the program’s first NCAA berth in 30 years. Their 60–56 first-round win over Clemson was the first NCAA tournament victory in 38 years.

No.	Class	Player	Pos.	Hgt	Wgt
8	Freshman	Caleb Wilson (5 star)	4	6–10	215
5	Freshman	Isaiah Denis (4 star)	CG	6–4	180
3	Freshman	Derek Dixon (4 star)	CG	6–5	200
40	Sophomore	Ivan Matlekovic	5	7–0	255
11	Sophomore	Jonathan Powell	G	6–6	190
2	Sophomore	James Brown	5	6–10	240
1	Sophomore	Zayden High	4	6–10	230
44	Junior	Luca Bogavac (BO-guh-VAHTS)	W	6–6	215
4	Junior	Jaydon Young	2	6–4	200
13	RS junior	Henri Veesaar (VEH-sar)	5	7–0	225
0	Junior	Kyan Evans	1	6–2	175
15	Junior	Jarin Stevenson	4	6–10	215
7	Senior	Seth Trimble	2	6–3	200
		Walk-ons
25	Sophomore	John Holbrook	4	6–8	230
32	Junior	Evan Smith	2	6–1	195
6	RS senior	Elijah Davis	2	6–3	205

Former UNC players who transferred

Player	Class next season	Pos.	Hgt	Wgt	Next school
Elliot Cadeau	Junior	PG	6–1	180	Michigan
Jalen Washington	Senior	C	6–10	235	Vanderbilt
Ian Jackson	Sophomore	G	6–4	190	St. John’s
Cade Tyson	Senior	F	6–7	200	Minnesota
Ven-Allen Lubin	Senior	C	6–8	230	N.C. State

Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 10 BYU in SLC	Exhib.
29	Wednesday	W, 95–53	vs. Winston-Salem St.	Exhib.
	November
3	Monday	W, 94–54	vs. Central Arkansas	1–0
7	Friday	W, 87–74	vs. No. 17 Kansas	2–0
11	Tuesday	W, 89–74	vs. Radford	3–0
14	Friday	W, 97–53	vs. N.C. Central	4–0
18	Tuesday	W, 73–61	vs. Navy	5–0
			Fort Myers Tip-Off
25	Tuesday	W, 85–70	vs. St. Bonaventure	6–0
27	Thursday	L, 74–58	vs. No. 9 Michigan State	6–1
	December		ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
2	Tuesday	W, 67–64	at Kentucky	7–1
			—————————
7	Sunday	W, 81–61	vs. Georgetown	8–1
13	Saturday	W, 80–62	vs. USC Upstate	9–1
16	Tuesday	W, 77–58	vs. East Tennessee State	10–1
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	3 p.m.	vs. Ohio State	CBS
			—————————
22	Monday	8 p.m.	vs. East Carolina	ACCN
30	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Florida State	ESPN2
	January
3	Saturday	2:15	at SMU	The CW
10	Saturday	6 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ACCN
14	Wednesday	9 p.m.	at Stanford	ACCN
17	Saturday	4 p.m.	at California	ACCN
21	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. Notre Dame	ESPN2
24	Saturday	2 or 2:30	at No. 23 Virginia	ESPN or ESPNU
31	Saturday	2 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
	February
2	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	ESPN
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2
14	Saturday	2 p.m.	vs. Pittsburgh	ESPN
17	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN or ESPN2
21	Saturday	1 p.m.	at Syracuse	ABC
23	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 11 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte