By R.L. Bynum

Roster continuity is a challenge in the transfer portal era, both for the programs and their fans, who are used to following players for multiple seasons. The jarring amount of transition in Carolina’s men’s basketball program is the most significant in 20 years.

It’s possible that no one who started the last 10 games of last season will be on the roster, and that only two scholarship players will return. That number goes up by one if Ven-Allen Lubin, who entered the transfer portal this week, returns, as he said is his intention. It’s also possible that Drake Powell could pull his name from the NBA draft by the June 15 deadline, but he sounded like he intends to stay in.

If Powell and Lubin aren’t back, they’d join three players who have no remaining eligibility (RJ Davis, Jae’Lyn Withers and Ty Claude) and four others who entered the transfer portal (Elliot Cadeau, transferring to Michigan; Jalen Washington, Vanderbilt; Ian Jackson, St. John’s; and Cade Tyson) lost from last season’s team.

While Duke has lost three players from last season’s Final Four team to the NBA (Cooper Flagg, Kon Kneuppel and Tyrese Proctor) so far, the Blue Devils are one of at least three programs (along with Tennessee and Boston University) that didn’t lose any players to the transfer portal.

The only Carolina scholarship returnees are one player who started 18 games last season (senior guard Seth Trimble) and another who only played 18 games last season (sophomore forward James Brown). Even if Lubin returns after starting 20 games last season, he is expected to come off the bench with the addition of 7–0 former Arizona redshirt junior Henri Veesaar.

This will be the first time since the 2005–06 season that UNC won’t return a player who started more than 20 games. That came after the program lost NCAA tournament MOP Sean May, Rashad McCants, Jawad Williams, Raymond Felton and Jackie Manuel, and reserve Marvin Williams off the 2005 national championship team.

Since then, there’s been steady continuity, from Tyler Hansbrough (2005–09), John Henson (2009–12), Marcus Paige (2012–16) and Joel Berry II (2014–18) — three of those playing four seasons — to Leaky Black (2018–23), Armando Bacot (2019–24) and RJ Davis (2020–25) each playing five.

The days of watching stars with NBA pedigrees such as Michael Jordan and James Worthy in Carolina blue for three seasons have been over for decades. Fans are lucky to see that level of player for two seasons. But now it’s going to be less common to see players who aren’t at that level for more than one or two seasons because of the ability to transfer to improve playing time and/or earnings.

Trimble, who will play his fourth consecutive season at UNC, will be the only player on next season’s roster who has played more than one season in the program.

At least four starters will be newcomers, and the rotation will include Veesaar, freshman five-star forward Caleb Wilson, junior Colorado State transfer point guard Kyan Evans, junior Alabama transfer forward Jarin Stevenson, sophomore West Virginia transfer guard Jonathan Powell and junior former Virginia Tech guard Jaydon Young.

The good news for that group is that the non-conference schedule won’t be as brutally challenging as last season — other than games against Kansas, Michigan State, Ohio State and an ACC/SEC Challenge opponent — giving the group time to build chemistry.

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. ETSU	10–1
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	W, 71–70	vs. Ohio State	11–1
			—————————
22	Monday	W, 99–51	vs. East Carolina	12–1
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. 21 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. 6 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. 16 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. 6 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte