Published on February 26th, 2025 by Inside Carolina
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — On nights that the North Carolina men’s basketball team doesn’t take the court, or in the mornings before it does, another set of Tar Heels would enter the Smith Center and perform in front of a dedicated few.
UNC’s junior varsity team — the last of its kind in major college basketball — would run onto the court donning Carolina jerseys and face off against community colleges, Division II and Division III programs and prep schools. Led by its head coach and UNC assistant coach Marcus Paige this season, this subsect of UNC basketball played inside the Smith Center with two 20-minute halves (running clock) inside an almost empty gym, but the fervor and engagement from the players were palpable on the court.
These low-key games have been a long-standing tradition in Chapel Hill, but moving forward, that tradition seems to be coming to an end.
On Saturday, UNC’s JV team played what will likely be its final game in a victory against Milligan College. With the terms of the new House vs. NCAA settlement, college basketball teams will be allotted 15 scholarships as a roster limit, potentially blocking the ability for a team to carry walk-on players. Per a UNC official, the JV team will not be able to continue barring any kind of special exemption.
This year’s UNC varsity team features 15 players with four walk-ons. Sophomore guard Russell Hawkins is one of those walk-ons, and he played on the JV team last year.
The junior varsity program at North Carolina, as it was at other schools, was originally intended for freshmen as they could not play at the varsity level until the 1972-73 season. But when the NCAA allowed first-year players to participate in varsity games, leading to the elimination of freshman teams for most other schools at the time, Dean Smith opted to keep North Carolina’s freshman team and use it as a JV program. Several of UNC JV’s opponents played under the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), though North Carolina is not directly affiliated with that organization. UNC JV players could play up to two years with the team before trying out for the varsity squad. The team took a two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic before returning for the 2022-23 season.
Over the years, the team became a staple within the program and a springboarding opportunity for those who worked as the JV head coach. Bill Guthridge coached the freshman team for the first six of his 30 seasons as an assistant coach at UNC, and he became the head coach after Smith retired for an additional four seasons. Roy Williams coached the team for eight seasons as an assistant under Smith before departing for Kansas and eventually returning to become the head coach at North Carolina.
Hubert Davis coached the team until his promotion in 2021 as the Tar Heels’ head coach. Jackie Manuel coached the program as an assistant under Davis before leaving to become an assistant at American, and Paige coached the team this past season. UNC assistant Brad Frederick has also spent time coaching the JV team.
This year’s JV team finished 12-1 under Paige, and posted a season farewell on Instagram after the game.
Jeremiah Holloway 