By R.L. Bynum

One missing piece in the construction of the roster for Coach Michael Malone’s first North Carolina team is a center who is more physical inside.

A court ruling will allow players who just finished their fourth seasons to play a fifth season, and the Tar Heels have been in contact with a pair of centers who might fill that need: 7–1, 212-pound Micah Handlogten, who played the last three seasons at Florida, and 7–0, 255-pound Cameron Fens, who played at South Dakota the past two seasons.

UNC has one roster spot remaining.

Handlogten had been seeking an NCAA waiver to allow him to play a fifth season, but that’s now not needed, assuming the court ruling holds up. In addition to Carolina, Fens has heard from Virginia Tech, Auburn, Fresno State, Washington, Ole Miss, USC and Creighton.

The decision that has opened a new opportunity came down Friday, when U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Colorado ruled that all high school class of 2022 athletes who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring are eligible for a fifth season in 2026–27.

The Colorado order followed a similar ruling hours earlier in Tennessee that had already restored eligibility to former UNC center Jalen Washington and 18 other basketball players. That combination of rulings suddenly flooded programs with late options.

Handlogten’s possible path to Chapel Hill has been building for months. UNC first made contact with him back in May, while he was still hoping the NCAA would grant him a medical hardship waiver stemming from a broken leg he suffered early in the 2024 SEC tournament, an injury that limited him to just 16 games the following season.

The Huntersville native, who starred at Southlake Christian Academy, began his college career at Marshall, where he was the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year in 2023. He averaged 7.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks across 32 starts.

He transferred to Florida for the 2023–24 season, averaging 5.3 points and 6.9 rebounds while starting 32 games. The broken leg he suffered in that year’s SEC championship game against Auburn was expected to cost him the following season entirely. He chose to forgo his redshirt and returned in February 2025 to provide bench depth as the Gators won their first national championship since 2007.

Over three seasons in Gainesville, Handlogten appeared in 83 games with 34 starts, averaging 4.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 0.8 of a block per game.

Handlogten entered the transfer portal on April 6, still uncertain whether the waiver would come through.

The waiver never arrived, and rather than wait any longer, Handlogten signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Utah Jazz in late June, a franchise with family significance since his father, Ben, played for Utah from 2003 to 2005. He made two appearances in the NBA Summer League for the Jazz, including an 11-minute outing against Portland in which he grabbed nine rebounds.

Friday’s ruling changed his calculus again, and it’s why UNC and others are now circling back to a player many had assumed was gone from college basketball for good.

---

Subscribe to read Tar Heel Tribune ad-free

Subscribe for a cleaner, smoother reading experience without the flashing banners, slow-loading elements, or those especially annoying pop‑up ads that interrupt the flow of the story. You’ll also get the first version of each story emailed to you. The only ads you’ll see are static, non-intrusive ads for UNC‑related books, and there are none currently on the site.

---

Fens, who is from Dubuque, Iowa, set Hempstead High School’s single-season rebounding record with 272 boards as a senior, when he averaged a double-double at 18.7 points and 11.3 rebounds and earned first-team all-state and all-conference honors.

He spent his first two college seasons at UIC, appearing in 53 games with 15 starts, before transferring to South Dakota ahead of the 2024–25 season. His first year at South Dakota was cut short by injury after 19 games, though he still averaged 8.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks while shooting 56.8% from the floor.

He broke out fully as a senior this past season, starting all 32 games and earning All-Summit League First Team and All-Defensive Team honors. In conference play, Fens averaged 17.6 points and 10.3 rebounds, the only player in the Summit League to post a double-double average against league opponents.

He ranked seventh in the conference in scoring and first in rebounding while shooting 60.9% from the field. For the season overall, he finished at 14.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.

When word of Friday’s ruling broke, Fens posted on X (formerly Twitter): “All glory to God. Finally earned my 5th year of eligibility and am open for recruitment.”

---

No./ Stars	Class	Player	Pos.	Hgt	Wgt
5 star	Freshman	Maximo Adams	SF	6–7	205
3 star	Freshman	Malloy Smith	CG	6–5	190
5 star	Freshman	Sayon Keita	C	7–0	215
4 star	Freshman	Kevin Thomas	W	6–7	190
	Freshman	Alexandros Samodurov	C	6–11	212
	RS freshman	Cade Bennerman — W	C	7–0	205
	Sophomore	Neoklis Avdalas — X	G	6–9	215
	Sophomore	Isaiah Denis	G	6–4	180
	Sophomore	Matt Able — Y	G	6–5	196
1	Senior	Terrence Brown — Z	G	6–3	174
4	Senior	Jaydon Young	G	6–4	200
15	Senior	Jarin Stevenson	4	6–10	215
	Graduate	Angelo Brizzi — ZZ	2	6–3	193
		Walk-ons
25	Junior	John Holbrook	4	6–8	230
32	Senior	Evan Smith	2	6–1	195

W — Northwestern transfer. X — Virginia Tech transfer; Y — N.C. State transfer; Z — Utah transfer; ZZ — Buffalo transfer

Michael Malone’s coaching staff: Chuck Martin, Bryan Tibaldi, Sean May and Pat Sullivan; Deon Thompson will be a graduate assistant, and Brandon Robinson will reportedly have a support staff position.

---

Players who left for the transfer portal

Player	Class next season	Pos.	Hgt	Wgt	Next school
Luka Bogavac	Senior	W	6–6	215	Oklahoma State
James Brown	Senior	C	6–10	240	Howard
Derek Dixon	Sophomore	G	6–5	200	Arizona
Kyan Evans	Senior	G	6–2	175	Minnesota
Zayden High	Junior	C	6–10	230	South Florida
Jonathan Powell	Junior	G	6–6	190	Pittsburgh
Ivan Matlekovic	Junior	C	7–0	255

---

Schedule so far

(Other than the ACC/SEC Challenge, games without links revealed from reporting by Alex Rosinski or Rocco Miller)
(13 of 14 games)

Oct. 18 — exhibition game vs. Indiana at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis
Nov. 2 — vs. Western Carolina
Nov. 6 — vs. Wofford
Nov. 10 — vs. Wyoming
Nov. 13 — vs. Georgia
Nov. 20 — vs. Marshall
Nov. 27 — vs. West Virginia at the Dick Vitale Invitational at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center
Dec. 1 — vs. Arkansas in ACC/SEC Challenge
Dec. 6 — vs. Butler
Dec. 12 — at Georgetown
Dec. 15 (tentative date) — vs. N.C. State in a non-conference game in Greensboro
Dec. 19 — vs. Kentucky in CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden, 2:30 p.m.
Dec. 21 — vs. The Citadel
Jan. 30 — vs. Illinois in Nashville, Tenn.

ACC games
Home and away: Duke, Louisville
Home only: California, Georgia Tech, Miami, N.C. State, SMU, Stanford, Virginia
Away only: Boston College, Florida State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

Photos via floridagators.com and goyotes.com