Jarin Stevenson's Coming Home; Alabama Transfer Commits to Tar Heels

It was a circuitous path but Jarin Stevenson will be a Tar Heel after all. Two years after leaving his Chapel Hill home to play at Alabama, Stevenson committed Sunday night to transfer to North Carolina. Jonathan Givony of ESPN first reported the news.

The 6-foot-11, 215-pound forward entered the transfer portal on Wednesday after two seasons at Alabama. He skipped his final year at Pittsboro (N.C.) Seaforth High in order to reclassify and enroll in college a year early. He started 27 of the 74 games he played in for the Crimson Tide, with two-year averages of 5.3 points and 3.0 rebounds. While he displayed his defensive versatility, he was mostly used as jump shooter on offense, with two thirds of his shot attempts coming from three-point range. Stevenson connected on 63 three-pointers at a 31.2 percent clip across two seasons.

He is the fourth transfer commitment for UNC this offseason, joining West Virginia wing Jonathan Powell, Arizona center Henri Veesaar, and Colorado State guard Kyan Evans.

The North Carolina coaching staff aggressively recruited Stevenson as a high school prospect, with Hubert Davis offering a scholarship to him his sophomore year in the fall of 2021 during a campus trip that would prove to be one of many more to come. Stevenson was a regular visitor -- at basketball games and football games -- making the short drive over from his home across town, culminating in an official visit to UNC in May of 2023. One month later, he committed to the Crimson Tide and enrolled.

Stevenson played against, and beat, the Tar Heels in each of his two seasons at Alabama. This season he hit two-three pointers to total six points, three rebounds, and a block in the non-conference game in Chapel Hill in December. He didn't score but had four rebounds, an assist and a block in the Sweet 16 matchup in 2024.

"I watched quite a bit of North Carolina basketball -- I was 10 minutes away from their campus -- so I watched quite a bit," Stevenson said before last season's matchup. "I know a lot of their coaches, a lot of their players. Yeah, it's definitely surreal, just a full-circle moment for sure playing North Carolina."

Alabama head coach Nate Oats raved about Stevenson's defense vs. UNC this season, as he was tasked with helping hold UNC star R.J. Davis to 7-for-24 shooting, including 1-for-11 on three-pointers.

"His athleticism to guard — I'm guessing maybe you watched our game when we played at Carolina earlier this year," Oats recalled last month. "He did as good a job as anybody on RJ Davis when we beat Carolina at Carolina. He's capable of being one of the elite two-way guys in the country with his shooting ability, his finishing, his strength, his athleticism on offense, and then how he can guard guys."

Stevenson had several big performances at Alabama, one of the biggest being a season-high 19-point effort against Clemson in the Elite Eight as a freshman in which he hit five three-pointers and helped the Crimson Tide reach their first Final Four in school history. This season his high scoring total was 22 points, with four three-pointers, in a win at Texas.

"Jarin is the same age (now) as what a freshman would be," Nate Oats said ahead of Alabama's NCAA Tournament opener last month. "He came a year early, but Jarin had 19 points to send us to the Final Four. ... I think he made a big jump. He kind of came back, driving the ball with a lot more physicality. I think he's got some confidence knowing he's done it at this level already ...

"I don't think he's afraid of the moment at all. Has he struggled a little bit? Yeah. He's a pretty quiet kid and he's gone through some slumps as any players do. Shoot, some of the best NBA players go through shooting slumps. I think he's more than capable of going 5-of-8 (like he did against Clemson) again or doing something great.

"We just need to keep pumping him full of confidence. He's a kid that he doesn't even know how good he is. When you talk to him, he has no idea. I mean, I think he should be a long-time NBA player. We've just got to realize he's young and pump him full of confidence and get him going because he could be an X-factor for us for sure."

Stevenson comes from a basketball family with Tar Heel ties. His mother, Nicole, played basketball at North Carolina from 1995-98. His father, Jarod, played basketball at Richmond and two decades of pro ball overseas before coaching Jarin at Seaforth.

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