Jeremiah Holloway

Published on June 27th, 2025 by Inside Carolina

PITTSBORO, N.C. — Eyes lit up and heads raised to the sky on Wednesday as the 6-foot-11 Jarin Stevenson walked into the Seaforth High School gym with his black Jordan Brand shorts and Carolina blue UNC T-shirt.

Stevenson, entering his junior year of college, made an appearance at his former high school to deliver words of wisdom to the 40-50 kids in attendance. Campers welcomed him back with enthusiastic cheers and applause as current Seaforth head coach John Berry greeted him. 

The memories came back to Stevenson once he walked into the building. The 42 points he scored against Jordan-Matthews. The first conference title he helped Seaforth win. The records he set. The skills he developed. All of those things rushed through his head as he enjoyed his homecoming appearance in Pittsboro.

“So far, it’s been amazing,” Stevenson said at the event. “My family, they also pushed me to get better. They pushed me to get in the gym. And even when I don’t feel like it, they help push me.”

In a Q&A session on the court, they asked him about making the Final Four at Alabama, the daily time he dedicates to the game and how much of his life he has committed to basketball. One kid even asked him if he could dunk for the crowd, but with his slides on, Stevenson laughed and politely stayed put.

Stevenson left home two years ago when he chose to play for Alabama after reclassifying a year early. He brought himself closer to home this offseason by committing to UNC through the transfer portal. Stevenson now has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

North Carolina recruited Stevenson as a local prospect before he went to the SEC, but now, the local prodigy is back in the 919.

“He’s going to be one of the big fish in the water at UNC this year,” Berry told Inside Carolina.

Growing Into His Game

Stevenson was practically born into basketball. His father, Jarod, played at Richmond before taking his basketball career overseas, and his mother, Nicole, played at UNC. Stevenson was born in North Carolina but spent most of his childhood in Korea towards the end of his dad’s basketball career.

The young Stevenson gravitated to the sport early, and around the age of five, he started stimulating games with his toy blocks at home. He’d group 10 blocks into two teams and number the blocks 1-5, pretending in his mind that those blocks were participating in a real game. 

“That was something that was a little different,” Jarod Stevenson told Inside Carolina. “So I always thought basketball would be something that he’d enjoy.”

Spending his elementary school years in Korea, Stevenson developed a laid-back personality. He loved basketball, but he also remained dedicated to academics and enjoyed playing video games in his downtime. 

When it came to basketball, Stevenson played against bigger players early on, as the competition level wasn’t as strong at that age in Korea. He ran point guard as a fifth grader while running with the junior varsity high school team at the private school he attended. Yes, at 10 years old, Stevenson served as the lead guard for high school freshmen.

“He was always tall for his age, but we tried to encourage him to always play with the ball in his hands and not be like a back-to-the-basket type guy,” Jarod Stevenson said. “So he’s always been sort of like a guard slash point guard when he was younger, and then when he got a little bit taller and moved up to some of the better teams, they sort of put him more around the basket and had him play different positions. But initially, he was more of a point guard.”

The Stevenson family came back to North Carolina during the summers, so Stevenson still played on the AAU circuit when he was younger. After his dad’s pro career, Stevenson moved back to the States as a middle schooler. He played for Team United in Nike’s EYBL league, helping the team reach the championship game during his eighth grade year. His talent became apparent then, as his physical tools and the skills he developed as a guard combined to make him a versatile player.

Stevenson played his freshman year of high school at Northwood in Pittsboro and was teammates with former UNC forward — and recent first-round NBA Draft pick — Drake Powell. The team went 14-3 in the 2020-21 campaign and reached the 3A state title game before losing to Weddington.

Stevenson led the team in scoring at 13.7 points per game and Powell followed behind at 11.4 points per game. From there, Stevenson made it clear what his ceiling could be.

“I think that sort of showed him what level he can play at it,” his father said. “And if he keeps working, how far basketball can take him.”

Stevenson transferred to the newly opened Seaforth High School, roughly 11 minutes away, for his sophomore year. His parents coached the team while he was there. His father, the then-head coach, said the experience helped Stevenson grow as a leader. Since the school was new, the team only had freshmen and sophomores on it, making Stevenson one of the older players.

Seaforth faced off against Powell’s Northwood team that year, serving as the first game in Seaforth’s history. Powell’s Chargers got the better of the Hawks that day, winning 72-42 against the new Seaforth squad. Powell finished with 26 points to Stevenson’s 13, both team-highs for their respective units. 

“When Jarin and Drake did face up that one time that year, it was a highly competitive individual matchup, but Northwood just had the guns,” Berry, Seaforth’s JV coach at the time, said. “You had a team that just came off of a championship run, they were second in the state, versus a team, literally, that would just formed like two weeks ago. So you had a bunch of new players with Jarin. So it just wasn’t competitive from a team perspective because Northwood is already established. So when you look at it from that perspective, you would say Drake Powell got the better because he had the better team at the time. 

“But as far as the head-to-head, listen, if you put those two the same teams, I mean, it’s going to be a problem for people. Putting them against each other, it was a great, what I call, ‘backyard ball rivalry’ type thing. I think in that particular game, Drake Powell got the better just because the team was better. But in terms of the skill, going back and forth, they complemented each other really well.”

Seaforth finished its first year 12-10, and Stevenson led the squad with 20.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. By this point, Stevenson’s cachet as a player had grown. Coaches from profile schools would attend the Hawks’ practices to see Stevenson up close for themselves.

As a junior, Stevenson’s numbers grew slightly, but the team as a whole improved to an 18-9 record, including an 11-1 conference record that ranked first in 1A/2A Conference 14. Stevenson won the Gatorade Player of the Year award for the state of North Carolina that season, posting averages of 21.8 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game. He showed his full arsenal in doing so, knocking down midrange and 3-point jumpers, using his size and handle to get to the rim and playing defense against all five positions.

Stevenson was no longer just a promising player. He was a force. 

He saw double teams and triple teams practically every night and had to adjust to the swarming defenses that teams threw at him. As Berry described it, playing Seaforth became a personal Super Bowl for any opponent that wanted to have a big game against Stevenson.

Berry said Stevenson carried himself with a Tim Duncan-style demeanor, never moving off his square and never getting rattled. He said this allowed him to consistently deliver despite the constant defensive attention.

“If there was anything that you would say about him, you would say, ‘Man, I would like for him to get a little bit madder,’” Berry said. “But no, he was just a guy that was able to handle that type of pressure and never let it overwhelm him to the point where he wasn’t able to perform. And that’s sort of what he did the whole time.”

Helping Alabama Make History

The five-star-rated Stevenson ranked as the No. 1 power forward in the class of 2024. By this time, he was deciding whether to stay at Seaforth for his senior year or reclassify and start college early. And with how well he played at Seaforth, the options were plentiful.

“If you look at him, he has the measurables,” Berry said. “He’s 6’10, 6’11. Long, rangy wingspan. He has the measurables. Number two, he had the skill. He can essentially do everything on the court. He can shoot. He can play defense. He can rebound. He had an IQ where he understood what to do offensively and understood what to do defensively. So he had the skill. And the third part of it was he had the work ethic. He had this coming in from the jump, and it was just a matter of him continuing to develop and to keep on that same trajectory. And if he stayed on that same trajectory, and this is why all these colleges were after him, then he was going to have the pick of the litter.”

When looking over his options, North Carolina was well within the realm of possibility. Considering the proximity and a potential fit in Hubert Davis’ system, the Tar Heels were a viable option. But when looking at Alabama, he saw a path to playing early on.

“The year before, Alabama was one of the top teams in the nation, but they lost a lot of guys either to the draft or guys graduating, so there were a lot of spots available to play immediately there,” Jarod Stevenson said. “And they’re a top team. So I think that was the biggest thing.”

Stevenson decided to play for Nate Oats’ Crimson Tide squad as a freshman in the 2023-24 season. When he joined, the team was filled with veteran players like Mark Sears, Grant Nelson, Aaron Estrada, Nick Pringle and others. Stevenson, only 17 years old at the start of the academic year, came off the bench most of the year but was in the rotation for every game. He played 16.6 minutes per game in his 37 appearances. He finished the year averaging 5.3 points and 2.7 rebounds.

It was a learning experience for the highly recruited Stevenson, as he’d been the leading scorer on his teams for years prior to his freshman season. Still, he was part of a Crimson Tide squad that earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Even though he didn’t put up flashy numbers throughout the season, Stevenson got his moment in the sun during the NCAA Tournament. An early standout moment for him came in the Sweet Sixteen, when he played against his hometown college North Carolina. 

“I watched quite a bit of North Carolina basketball,” Stevenson said the day before that March 2024 matchup. “I was 10 minutes away from their campus. So I watched quite a bit. I know a lot of their coaches, a lot of their players. Yeah, it’s definitely surreal, just a full-circle moment for sure playing North Carolina.”

Stevenson didn’t score in his 15 minutes, but the Crimson Tide edged out the Tar Heels 89-87 in Los Angeles to advance to the Elite Eight — and in that game, Stevenson made his presence felt.

The 6-foot-11 forward delivered a career-best performance that helped secure a historic milestone victory for Alabama. He caught fire and supplied 19 points off the bench, knocking down five of his eight 3-point attempts in the team’s 89-82 victory to send the Crimson Tide to the Final Four for the first time in program history.

“Jarin’s still young,” his father said. “He understands it, but he doesn’t really understand it. So it’s always cool to try to tell him that, at Alabama, they’re always going to remember him for that game because he was a big factor in helping them get to their first-ever Final Four. So that’s always cool to hear. I still hear people talk about that when we go up to Alabama. ‘Yeah, we remember Stevenson had a big game to help us get to the Final Four.’ So it’s pretty cool to look back on that. And I think Jarin, when he gets a little bit older, he’ll realize how important that was.”

Returning Home To Chapel Hill

UNC fans hoped for redemption when Alabama came to town for the ACC-SEC Challenge game last November — and one of those fans was in Stevenson’s family. Stevenson’s cousin, an avid UNC fan, told him that he’d be rooting for the Tar Heels to get their revenge for the Sweet Sixteen defeat earlier in the year. 

“So he wasn’t trying to cheer for Jarin or nothing,” Jarod Stevenson said. “He was like, ‘Nah, I’m not cheering for you, Jarin. I’m going for Carolina.’ Him and Jarin, they got a little back and forth with that, so that’s pretty funny.”

The game served as a special occasion for Pittsboro high school basketball, as Powell had joined North Carolina’s roster for his freshman season. Both players started the game and scored six points, but this time, it was Stevenson’s squad that came out victorious over Powell’s.

“Me and Drake have done a great job just building the area and building basketball and to inspire the kids,” Stevenson said on Wednesday. “I feel like our work ethic also is very important. I feel like we did a great job inspiring just (by) going to the gym.”

After that, Stevenson and Alabama went on to finish the season 28-9 as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, an improvement from the prior year. But for the sophomore forward, the 2024-25 season nearly mirrored his first year in terms of production. He started in 22 of the 37 games and saw a slight increase in minutes, but his stats were almost exactly the same, even down to the number of shots he took from year one to year two.

Stevenson’s sophomore year wasn’t without its moments. He scored a career-high 22 points in a victory against Texas in February while shooting 7-8 from the field. In the SEC Tournament, he averaged 13 points in Alabama’s two games.

Defensively, Stevenson’s dad felt he showed more of his versatility as a sophomore. But offensively, he got out to a slow start. Stevenson was 0-17 from 3-point range in the first six games of the season, and he was averaging just 3.5 points per game at the time. He eventually found more of a groove as the season went on, but still didn’t truly pop outside of a few standout moments.

“Hopefully, he learned how to deal with not meeting expectations and still trying to play through it and being able to show your talent,” Jarod Stevenson said. “Maybe you didn’t meet the expectations immediately or immediately that year, but keep working and try to get better so you can exceed those expectations. So hopefully, he learned that from last year.”

Stevenson entered the transfer portal with an existing familiarity of North Carolina from the time Davis recruited him. UNC was a natural fit as it would bring him much closer to home and allow him to carve his own role on a new-look team.

And for his family, the nine-hour drives to Alabama are now over.

“The trip to Tuscaloosa was getting old kind of quick,” his dad said.

Stevenson joins a North Carolina team that picked up Henri Veesaar, Kyan Evans, Jaydon Young and Jonathan Powell through the transfer portal. The team also added overseas signee Luka Bogavac from Montenegro, and it added freshmen Caleb Wilson, Derek Dixon and Isaiah Denis.

UNC is returning only three players with experience in a Tar Heel uniform, and only one of them, Seth Trimble, has started a game for the program. James Brown and Zayden High fill out the frontcourt.

Stevenson’s already practicing with this year’s team as it figures out its on-court makeup, and the young forward looks to showcase his ability to contribute.

“With those two years that he got, I mean, he’s going to be a killer,” Berry said of Stevenson’s potential. “He’s going to be a killer over at UNC. I just think with his experience, he’s gonna be dealing with a lot of new guys coming in, particularly like some of these bigger schools. I suspect that he’ll average at least 18-20 points this year coming in at UNC. I think it’s gonna be a breakout.”

Now, without hesitation, everyone in his family can root for both him and the Tar Heels all season. He also fills in for Powell as Pittsboro’s resident hometown hooper.

Stevenson will be playing basketball just 10 minutes from his family’s home and not too much further from Seaforth High School, where his game-worn jersey from his Elite Eight sits in a display case in the hallway of the gym.

As he signed autographs and took pictures during his homecoming appearance, Stevenson took it all in. He’s back at a familiar place with a fresh start.  

This fall, he’ll seek to make the most of his return.