CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -There are no boos, only a smattering of applause for the home team and the sound of a bird chirping loudly from the rafters after somehow getting inside the empty 21,750-seat arena.
This serene setting in the home of the North Carolina men’s basketball team is what greets the junior varsity squad, still churning as one of the rare JV programs at the Division I level.
And even though not many in this basketball-crazed region seem to care about the junior varsity squad – there were more people at tryouts than who attended Thursday’s game – it doesn’t matter to the players.
“It’s surreal almost,” junior forward Claude Shields said. “You never think growing up you’ll have the chance (to play for the Tar Heels). I love to get here 30 minutes early and soak it all in and I don’t want it to end. When we have to run sprints at the end of practice, it doesn’t bother me. I can do it with a smile on my face. We just play because we all love it.”
the freshman team until the NCAA allowed freshmen to play varsity basketball in 1972. The decision prompted most schools to disband their teams. Only a handful are believed to still be in existence, primarily at Ivy League schools or military service academies.
Longtime coach Dean Smith decided to keep North Carolina’s team, which he felt would give non-scholarship students the chance to play for the school and provide head coaching experience to varsity assistants.
Coach Roy Williams was one of those assistants. He plans to keep JV basketball going here as long as he is coach.
The expenses, covered by the varsity program’s budget, amount to little more than shoes, practice jerseys and hiring referees for games. The team wears varsity hand-me-down jerseys from the 1990s, while there were no travel costs this year because the team didn’t play on the road.
For the 15 players picked through a campus tryout, just being able to wear that Carolina blue jersey is a prize all itself. But then there’s always the lottery-ticket chance that it might lead to a coveted spot as a walk-on at the end of Williams’ bench.
This year, about 50 to 60 students attended tryouts. The players that make the team typically practice after the varsity, then play games with virtually no one in the stands.
lvia Hatchell, whose son, Van, is a sophomore on the team. On days when the varsity is scheduled to play afterward, that attendance can slowly increase as students file in for the later game – sometimes paying attention to the JV game and sometimes not.
Students can play two years for the team, which plays JV squads from Division II and III schools, and community colleges as well as prep schools from the region. Games typically take place a few hours before the varsity’s home games.
This year’s JV Tar Heels (11-1) finish the season Saturday against Guilford Technical Community College.
No one has to sell Williams on the value of the JV program. His son, Scott, played two years in the 1990s before joining the varsity. And Williams spent eight years as JV coach while working as an assistant under Smith.
“The biggest reason it was so valuable was because you had to make all the decisions,” said Williams, who started a JV program after taking over at Kansas but had to shut it down a few years later due to Title IX requirements. “It wasn’t suggestions, it was decisions. You had to teach all aspects of the game and had no help. I made the schedule out. I did the practices.
“I don’t know that it made me confident, but it made me comfortable in that role. I guess that was the first step to being confident and saying, ‘OK, maybe you can do this thing after all.”’
blue jerseys at home because, as current JV coach and varsity assistant C.B. McGrath put it, “If you’re going to get a chance to wear one uniform, you want to wear that Carolina blue one.”
From the start of Thursday’s game, it was clear McGrath’s team runs many of the plays used by Williams’ varsity – most notably in how they look to run out in transition at every opportunity.
“It’s always fun during away (varsity) games, you’ll be sitting with your teammates and calling out the plays they’re running,” senior Thomas Thornton said. “You kind of feel like you’re more a part of it than just the average student.”
Of course, almost every JV player admits to an even bigger goal. With Williams aiming to have 15 to 17 players on his varsity roster, there are often opportunities for a few JV players – typically ones who have played two seasons – to earn an invitation to practice with the varsity on an extended tryout.
If they make it, they’ll earn seats at the end of the bench and, in lopsided victories, mop-up duty in the final minutes.
However, the number of spots depends on how many varsity players depart via graduation, transfer or early entry to the NBA. This year, with the top six scorers back from a Final Four team and a four-man recruiting class, there was no room for additions.
route last year. Tanner, whose younger brother Ford is on the JV team, still watches its games and can’t help but feel a little envious even though he’s living the dream of most junior varsity players.
“Sometimes it kind of makes me wish I was out there again,” he said with a chuckle. “The only thing you miss is the minutes.”
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