Michael Malone and the North Carolina Tar Heels continue to build out their roster for the upcoming college basketball season.
On Tuesday, North Carolina secured a commitment from 7-foot center Sayon Keita — a five-star international recruit out of Spain.
Keita, originally from Mali, plays for FC Barcelona. The 18-year-old big man averaged about three points and two rebounds through less than 10 minutes per game for the highly-respected international program. For the Barca U22 team, Keita averaged 8.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game in league play.
Keita took an official visit to the University of North Carolina last summer, while the program was still led by now-former head basketball coach Hubert Davis.
In addition to his visit to Chapel Hill, Keita also took visits with Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Duke and UConn.
Keita adds some much-needed front court depth for a North Carolina team that just lost Second Team All-ACC center Henri Veesaar to the 2026 NBA draft. He’s the second 7-foot player to commit to the Tar Heels over the last two days, joining Northwestern transfer Cade Bennerman.
Malone and the Tar Heels have four other transfer portal additions joining the program before the 2026-27 college basketball season: Virginia Tech’s Neoklis Avdalas, Utah’s Terrence Brown, Florida Atlantic’s Maxim Logue and NC State’s Matt Able. The program is also welcoming high school recruits Maximo Adams and Malloy Smith.
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