The UNC men’s basketball program has announced its full roster, complete with jersey numbers, for the 2026-27 season, the team’s first under head coach Michael Malone.
The roster features six players from the 2025-26 team: senior forward Jarin Stevenson, senior guard Jaydon Young, senior guard Evan Smith, junior forward John Holbrook and sophomore guard Isaiah Denis. Of those six players, four will wear the same jersey number from last season: Stevenson (No. 15), Young (No. 4) and Smith (No. 32). Denis will trade in his No. 5 jersey for No. 2, last worn by center James Brown in 2025-26. Brown has since transferred. Holbrook, meanwhile, will become the first Tar Heel ever to wear the No. 99 jersey.
UNC rosters four freshmen: forward Maximo Adams and wing Malloy Smith, both from California; guard Kevin Thomas from Florida and center Sayon Keita, who is originally from Mali and played professionally in Spain. Adams will wear No. 25, which was previously worn by Holbrook before he switched to No. 99. Smith will follow in the footsteps of both his father Kenny Smith and brother K.J. Smith by donning the No. 30 jersey for the Tar Heels. Keita will wear No. 21, most recently worn by Will Shaver during the 2022-23 season. Thomas, who signed with UNC after decommitting from LSU, will wear the No. 5 jersey vacated by Denis.
Several transfers join the Tar Heels in 2026-27. Angelo Brizzi from Buffalo and Cameron Fens from South Dakota are both graduates playing their final seasons, while Terrence Brown from Utah will enroll as a senior. Greek national Alexandros Samodurov, who played professionally for the Athenian club Panathinaikos, will be classified as a junior. Former NC State standout Matt Able and Virginia Tech star Neo Avdalas will be sophomores, and former Northwestern Wildcat Cade Bennerman will be a redshirt freshman. The jersey numbers for each are as follows: Brizzi will wear No. 14 (most recently worn by Russell Hawkins), Fens No. 54 (last worn by Vasco Evtimov in 1997), Samodurov No. 22 (Ven-Allen Lubin in 2025), Able No. 3 (Derek Dixon last season), Avdalas No. 17 (Bill White in 1950) and Bennerman No. 35 (Ryan McAdoo in 2022).
For a full look at UNC’s roster, including heights, weights and hometowns, click here.
Featured image via Chapel Hill Media Group/Todd Melet
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