Jae’Lyn Withers records best game as a Tar Heel against former team Louisville in Wednesday night win

The basketball was loose. 

With three minutes on the clock, Louisville guard Tre White was sprawled across the hardwood. UNC's Jae’Lyn Withers, stumbling and staggering over the horizontal White, somehow managed to pick up the ball, remain vertical, dribble out of the chaos and find Harrison Ingram. Ingram quickly rotated it to RJ Davis, who was open in the corner, and Davis did the rest.

Dagger.

While Davis drilled the big triple, it was Withers who made it happen. And in No. 4 North Carolina’s 86-70 home victory over Louisville Wednesday night, Withers made things happen all night long against his former team. The graduate forward had his best game so far as a Tar Heel, recording his first double-double in Carolina blue with 15 points and 10 rebounds. After North Carolina held a 17 point lead at the break, Withers played a crucial role down the stretch as the Tar Heels fended off a Louisville surge in the second half.

Rewind to before the season has begun. Withers spoke about what it was like to leave Louisville at UNC's preseason media day. The Cardinals were one of the worst teams in the Power Five in 2022-23, finishing with a 4-28 record, but it was still difficult for Withers to leave.

“I think that I gave Louisville a lot of, not only my mental [energy], but as well as my physical [energy]," he said in October. "I think it was time for a change.”

Fast-forward to Wednesday night, and it felt like a full-circle moment.

Withers' hustle was evidenced by the scratches and bruises he sported postgame. He fought for every rebound and slashed to the basket on multiple occasions, absorbing and finishing through contact. 

With the game still in the balance with under 10 minutes to play, Withers cut baseline and received a good pass from Elliot Cadeau. He jumped and contorted his body in mid-air under the basket to somehow finish with a one-hand slam through traffic. On the following Tar Heels’ possession, Withers got the ball in the post and spun into a double team. No problem — he rose up and claimed the hoop, to which Armando Bacot responded with the ‘too-small’ celebration. 

“[Bacot] was saying, ‘He a little boy,’ this and that,” Withers said. “‘He too little.’ And everybody else was like, ‘Yeah, keep going, this is your game right here.’”

It was indeed his game. 

“He was just terrific tonight in every area on both ends of the floor,” head coach Hubert Davis said on Wednesday night. “One of the things for J-Wit is he brings things to our team that nobody else on the team can do. He just has size and athleticism — some of the plays that he made, we just don’t have anybody else on the team that can make those type of plays.”

Withers said he believes he can continue to bring the same energy and unique plays moving forward. According to him, Wednesday night was only the beginning. 

If you ask Bacot, he’d likely attest. 

“He does a lot of stuff in practice where it’s just like, ‘Wow,’” Bacot said. “I wish y’all could actually see some of the things he do. And I think he’s starting to find his way, and it’s been great because he’s a high-level player, and he can do a lot of things.”

And to put it all together with a double-double against his former team — that has to feel good. Right, Jae'Lyn?

“That alone says it all,” Withers said.

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