UNC junior point guard Marcus Paige is relishing the chance to combat some old friends from back home Wednesday night when the No. 12 Tar Heels, 5-1 on the season, welcome the 5-2 Iowa Hawkeyes inside the Smith Center for an ACC-Big Ten Challenge matchup.

***Listen to the story***

Paige reflected back on his Iowa roots Tuesday afternoon at his press conference.

The Midwest native says he was a whisker away from committing to play for Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks.

“At the end of my sophomore year, I was very close. I went to Late Night at the Phog my sophomore year and talked to Coach Self a whole bunch of times. I was very close to committing, but my coaches and parents told me to be patient and get a feel for things more. Obviously, things changed the year following that,” Paige says.

Tar Heels cheer on from the sidelines (Nick Vitali)

Tar Heels cheer on from the sidelines (Nick Vitali)

They say patience is a virtue. And boy, UNC head coach Roy Williams and the Tar Heels are certainly glad Paige listened to his parents’ advice.

Paige got that fateful phone call from Coach Williams and says he promptly freaked out. He had always been a huge Carolina basketball buff. But now, he got his turn to make some Tar Heel hardwood history himself.

Paige, the leading scorer and sparkplug for Carolina, wasted no time making an impact on the program. But now, he’s ready to host a visit from his home-state flagship school – the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Paige says he’s excited to show his old buddies where he goes to work each day in Chapel Hill.

“It will be cool. I like the fact that they’re coming down here. I’ve been home and know what it’s like. It’s cool to have them see what I go through every day, where I call home now and experience what it’s like to be at a North Carolina basketball game. Hopefully, we will come out on top, but it will be cool to compete against guys I consider really good friends,” Paige says.

For Coach Williams, the game is all business, and he expects a stern test from head coach Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeyes.

“When I’m looking at all those stats, it makes you think they’re more a team. That’s always the most difficult kind to play. Fran really does a nice job and has been around a long time. We know several of those kids. I tried to recruit Adam Woodbury,” Coach Williams says.

The Hall of Famer says the tape on Iowa shows a selfless, team-first bunch of Hawkeyes, and that concerns him.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery (Iowa Athletics)

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery (Iowa Athletics)

“The thing that worries you as a coach is when you see the ball move and five defensive players move. That tells you they’re pretty good defensively. On the offensive end, if you see guys doing the little things, setting screens or making cuts to get people out of the way for somebody else that means they’re playing as a team on the offensive end of the floor too,” Coach Williams says.

It can be a difficult dynamic going up against friends in the heat of competition, but Paige says he’s confident he won’t have any issues putting his game face on Wednesday night.

“I played against all of them in high school at some point. It’s kind of similar, but more people care and more people watch now that it’s a nationally-televised game at the highest level of college basketball. It will be the same thing, but it won’t be too hard to go at them because I know they’re going to try to come at me,” Paige says.

The Hawkeyes lead the overall head-to-head series with the Tar Heels 2-1, but UNC won the last meeting 106-92 in the 2004 Maui Invitational championship game.