Sneakers screech on the glossy wooden floor. Reflections of the blue and white jerseys of their owners float up to the rafters of the Smith Center, where banners hang, telling of the legends and accomplishments of their predecessors.
One jersey breaks away from the rest, as North Carolina guard Jay Lamothe races ahead of the Guilford College defense. He extends for the layup as a defender crashes into him.
The moment the shot leaves his hands, Lamothe knows it’s true. He turns to face the stands, punctuating his basket with a fist pump and a cry of, “And one!”
But his shout echoes out into the cavernous space of an almost empty gym. No thunderous applause greets his performance, no jubilant voice in the loudspeaker lingers over the syllables in his name.
Only a few sporadic claps and high-fives from his teammates are Lamothe’s reward for his feat of athleticism during the team's 81-72 victory Sunday.
Such is life for a member of North Carolina’s junior varsity basketball team.
“It was always my dream as a little kid to come play for Carolina with a lot of people watching,” senior Lyle Jones said. “But it doesn’t matter; I get to represent my school and I get to represent my teammates and my coach well, and that’s all I try to do every game.”
UNC is one of the few Division I schools — and the only one in the ACC — to still have a JV basketball program. It’s a fossil resulting from an old NCAA rule that prohibited freshmen from playing on the varsity team. When the rule was changed in 1972, most JV teams went extinct.
But out on the Dean Dome floor, where history has been made and traditions have been established, the 13 members of this year’s JV team continue to play for the love of the game.