Seth Trimble is headed to Louisville, and that means North Carolina will see him again next season - just in a different uniform.
Trimble announced the move in an Instagram story, explaining that he had spent the summer weighing a return to college but ultimately found the door at UNC closed.
“I’ve been considering returning to college the whole summer now, and Carolina has always in the running,” Trimble said in an Instagram story. “But with a full roster at UNC, and other circumstances, I won’t be able to return home and will be transferring.”
His decision sends him to an ACC rival and gives Pat Kelsey’s program another big-name addition. Louisville is already being talked about as one of the country’s best teams, and Trimble slides into a transfer class that has been ranked No. 1 in the nation by 247Sports.
The Cardinals’ haul is loaded. Flory Bidunga, the Kansas forward/center who entered the portal as the top overall transfer prospect, is in the mix, along with Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad, who was ranked No. 18 overall and No. 4 among portal guards. Louisville also added Arkansas wing Karter Knox, Iowa forward Alvaro Folgueiras, USC center Gabe Dynes and Dayton guard De’Shayne Montgomery.
Trimble is not walking into a bare cupboard, either. Louisville is keeping guards Adrian Wooley and London Johnson, the only two returning scholarship players from a team that lost 11 players this offseason. Wooley, who arrived from Kennesaw State, averaged 18.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game as a freshman there.
Kelsey’s staff also brought in a three-man freshman class that includes five-star center Obinna Ekezie Jr. and four-star wing Boyuan Zhang. Put it all together, and Louisville has the kind of roster that can realistically go 10 or 11 deep with high-level athleticism across the floor.
Trimble’s path to this point had already been complicated by the transfer process and the NCAA eligibility fight tied to high school Class of 2022 athletes. A ruling from U.S.
District Judge Charlotte Sweeney granted a class-wide preliminary injunction ordering the NCAA to declare eligible all high school Class of 2022 athletes who had already exhausted four seasons of eligibility this spring. Appeals could still change that, though.
If that eligibility were taken away, Trimble would likely try to land with the Washington Wizards. He signed an Exhibit 10 contract with Washington and played for its Summer League team, where he scored 24 points against the Los Angeles Clippers on July 15.
A return to Chapel Hill never really looked likely once that eligibility door reopened. UNC still had a roster spot, but its final need was a physical center, and it filled that slot with former South Dakota center Cameron Fens.
Coach Michael Malone also has plenty of backcourt options, with Utah transfer Terrence Brown, Virginia Tech transfer Neoklis Avdalas, N.C. State transfer Matt Able, Buffalo transfer Angelo Brizzi and returnee Isaiah Denis.
Had the court ruling come before Brizzi committed, Trimble probably would have had a place on the UNC roster.
Instead, he heads to Louisville after finishing his UNC career with 971 points in 126 games. His most memorable moment in a Tar Heel uniform came with that last-second corner 3-pointer that beat Duke last season. UNC will see him again soon enough - only this time, he’ll be wearing Cardinals red.
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