North Carolina men’s basketball and Michael Malone have lost a key part of their future building blocks in Chapel Hill.
According to multiple reports, Tar Heels recruit Dylan Mingo, the No. 2-ranked combo guard in the 2026 recruiting class by 247Sports’ Composite rankings, has reopened his recruitment. The reports were then confirmed by Rodd Baxley of The Fayetteville Observer, part of the USA TODAY Network.
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Mingo has yet to publicly announce his decision, but did reshare a post from Rivals’ Joe Tipton on the report.
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The 6-foot-5 guard out of Long Island committed to North Carolina back in February when Hubert Davis was still the Tar Heels coach. North Carolina fired Davis on March 24 following another first weekend exit from the Men’s NCAA Tournament.
The Tar Heels hired Malone, who has not coached at the college ranks before, on Monday, April 6 to be Davis’ successor. The NCAA allows committed high school recruits to get out of their binding agreements with their future university
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Mingo is ranked as a five-star recruit and the No. 5 overall recruit in the 2026 recruiting class according to 247Sports’ Composite rankings system. He chose North Carolina over Baylor, Penn State and Washington. He was one of two 2026 recruits who committed to North Carolina under Davis, with the other being Maximo Adams, who has re-committed to Malone and the Tar Heels.
As noted by ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, Mingo missed most of his high school season at Long Island Lutheran High School with an ankle injury and sat out last summer’s Peach Jam, one of the top AAU tournaments on the Nike circuit, with an injury.
Mingo is the brother of former Penn State guard Kayden Mingo, who is the No. 14-ranked player in USA TODAY Sports’ most recent transfer portal rankings.
Dylan Mingo 247 rankings
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Positional ranking: No. 2
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Dylan Mingo was listed as a five-star recruit and the fifth-best recruit in the 2026 recruiting class per 247Sports’ Composite rankings. He was also listed as the No. 2 combo guard and the No. 1 player in the state of New York in his class.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dylan Mingo reopens UNC basketball recruitment, 247 rankings