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 Fens, former UNC center Jalen Washington and 17 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.

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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.”

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No.	Class	Player	Pos.	Hgt	Wgt
25	Freshman	Maximo Adams (MAX-ih-mo)	F	6–7	220
30	Freshman	Malloy Smith	G	6–5	180
21	Freshman	Sayon Keita (SIGH-on KAY-tuh)	C	7–0	205
5	Freshman	Kevin Thomas	W	6–6	205
35	Sophomore	Cade Bennerman — U	C	7–0	205
17	Sophomore	Neo Avdalas — W (NEE-oh ahv-DOLL-lus)	G	6–9	220
2	Sophomore	Isaiah Denis	G	6–4	185
3	Sophomore	Matt Able — X	G	6–5	200
22	Junior	Alexandros Samodurov (Alex-ANN-drose SAH-muh-DUHR-off)	C	6–11	225
1	Senior	Terrence Brown — Y	G	6–3	180
4	Senior	Jaydon Young (JAY-din)	G	6–4	200
15	Senior	Jarin Stevenson (JARE-in)	F	6–10	220
14	Graduate	Angelo Brizzi — Z (BRIZZ-ee)	G	6–3	200
54	Graduate	Cameron Fens — V (Fenz)	C	7–0	255
		Walk-ons
99	Junior	John Holbrook — SA	F	6–8	230
32	Senior	Evan Smith	G	6–1	200

V — South Dakota transfer; U — Northwestern transfer; W — Virginia Tech transfer; X — N.C. State transfer; Y — Utah transfer; Z — Buffalo transfer; SA — Holbrook is a designated student-athlete, so he doesn’t count against UNC’s 15-player limit.

Coach Michael Malone’s coaching staff — Associate head coach Chuck Martin; assistant coaches Bryan Tibaldi (tih-BALL-dee), Sean May, Jorge Sanz (HOR-hey sahnth), Pat Sullivan and Brandon Robinson; Director of player development Deon Thompson.

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Players who entered 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	Pacific

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UNC schedule

Date	Month/day	Opponent/event (final ranks)
	October	Exhibitions
9	7 p.m. Friday	vs. USC in Greensboro
18	5 p.m. Sunday	vs. Indiana in Indianapolis
27	Tuesday	vs. Charlotte
	November	Regular season
2	Monday	vs. Western Carolina
6	Friday	vs. Wofford
10	Tuesday	vs. Wyoming
13	Friday	vs. Georgia
20	Friday	vs. Marshall
23	Monday	vs. Monmouth
27	Friday	Dick Vitale Invitational vs. West Virginia in Charlotte
	December
1	Tuesday	ACC/SEC Challenge vs. No. 13 Arkansas
6	Sunday	vs. Butler
12	Saturday afternoon	at Georgetown
15	7 p.m. Tuesday	Tobacco Road Classic vs. N.C. State in Greensboro
19	2:30 Saturday, CBS	CBS Sports Classic vs. Kentucky in New York
21	Monday	vs. The Citadel
30	Wednesday	vs. California
	January
2	Saturday	at Boston College
5	7 p.m. Tuesday	at Louisville
9	Saturday	vs. N.C. State
13	Wednesday	at Florida State
16	Saturday	vs. Stanford
19	Tuesday	vs. No. 17 Virginia
23	Saturday	at Syracuse
26	Tuesday	vs. SMU
30	Saturday	Nashville Hoops Showdown vs. No. 5 Illinois in Nashville, Tenn.
	February
2	Tuesday	at Notre Dame
6	Saturday	vs. Georgia Tech
8	Monday, 7 p.m, ESPN	vs. Louisville
13	Saturday	at No. 4 Duke
20	Saturday	at Wake Forest
22	Monday, 7 p.m, ESPN	vs. No. 24 Miami
27	Saturday	at Virginia Tech
	March
2	Tuesday	at Pittsburgh
6	Saturday	vs. No. 4 Duke
9–13	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament in Greensboro

Photos via floridagators.com and goyotes.com