When Ven-Allen Lubin decided to bolt from North Carolina and transfer to rival N.C. State earlier this month, Tar Heels guard Seth Trimble couldn’t resist taking a little good-natured shot at his exiting teammate. Under a social media post announcing Lubin’s move, Trimble commented with a GIF that shows himself staring down North Carolina State’s Dontrez Styles – another UNC defector – while Lubin steps in between them.
His response went viral and became the talk of North Carolina basketball fans in the triangle.
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“It was a perfect GIF for me to post,” Trimble told Hoops HQ. “I just wanted to troll a little bit, and then it ended up blowing up. I didn’t really expect that. You know I still love Dontrez to this day and that’s gonna be the same with Ven. Ven’s going to continue to be a brother.”
Now, Trimble is focused on getting to know his new band of brothers.
Seven players started at least 12 games for the Tar Heels last season, but Trimble, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, is the only one of them who will be back for the 2025-26 campaign. The Tar Heels have retooled their roster with transfers (No. 19 in the Hoops HQ Transfer Portal Rankings), including guards Kyran Evans (Colorado State), Jaydon Young (Virginia Tech) and Jonathan Powell (West Virginia); and forwards Jarin Stevenson (Alabama) and Henri Veesaar (Arizona). The massive overhaul has made Trimble the most known commodity for a North Carolina team that surged to make the NCAA Tournament last March, won a First Four game to back up its inclusion, then lost to Ole Miss. It also leaves him as the team’s clear leader, a role Trimble said his coaches have made sure he understands.
“It is an adjustment and it’s something that I have quickly gotten used to and I’ve quickly embraced,” Trimble said. “I’m the old guy here now, you know? I’m the vet. I’m the guy who has to set the example and has to lead the way.”
Trimble has learned about leadership from his teammates over the past three seasons in Chapel Hill, taking lessons from the likes of Armando Bacot, RJ Davis, Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan. Trimble learned about handling the pressure of playing at Carolina from Davis, who stayed five years with the Tar Heels.
“He battled through so much adversity and he kept his head high,” Trimble said of Davis, who finished his career as the ACC’s third all-time leading scorer. “And he always had the utmost confidence in himself. I think that was the biggest takeaway. No matter what RJ went through, whether it was, hate from fans, doubt within himself, bad shooting slumps, whatever it was, RJ always had the utmost confidence in himself and always made sure that his teammates were feeding off his energy.”
“I’m the old guy here now, you know? I’m the vet. I’m the guy who has to set the example and has to lead the way.”
UNC Senior guard Seth Trimble
Trimble said he thinks having a “player-led team” – like the 2023-24 Sweet 16 squad– can make the difference between having a successful year or falling short of expectations. “My sophomore year, we were one of those elite North Carolina teams,” Trimble said. “We were a player-led team. In times that we struggled, like my freshman and my junior year, I feel like there wasn’t really that player-led standpoint and you can see the difference.”
Last season, Trimble established himself as one of the conference’s top dribble penetrators, a player capable of getting into the lane and to the rim to either finish or draw fouls.
“I tell him attack, attack, attack under control,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “Because I think good things happen when he attacks the basket.”
That mindset helped Trimble average 11.6 points per game, third-most among the Tar Heels. His 140 free-throw attempts were second only to RJ Davis, as was his 82 percent success rate at the line. Going into his senior season, Trimble believes he’s matured as a player and developed more patience on the court, better decision making and a refined 3-point stroke. He said, after years of being a role player, he’s looking forward to being on the ball more and having more of the offense run through him. “You’ll see a more evolved Seth and the Seth I always thought I could be,” Trimble said.
Despite the team rallying to reach the NCAAs for the fourth time in five years, Trimble felt unsatisfied and felt like he and his teammates let down one of college basketball’s most passionate fan bases. “What I live with the most was the hurt and the sadness of just having a year like that at this university,” he said. “That was a really frustrating thing about it. But you know a really good thing about this year is, we have an opportunity to fix it and I have an opportunity to be a leader and change that.”
And the team that Trimble will be leading? He sees a squad that has the physical tools and talent to be maybe the best he’s played on at Carolina, especially if it gels on the defensive end. He said the additions Hubert Davis has made to the roster should help the Heels be a better shooting club. “We’re a long team this year. We’re really athletic,” Trimble said. “My goal is for us to build and strive on defense. You see the best teams in the country and the most physical teams to play the hardest get up and down. We have that North Carolina fast tempo.”
The ACC’s unbalanced schedule means Lubin and N.C. State won’t visit Chapel Hill this season, but the Tar Heels do go to Raleigh – meaning a reunion for Trimble and his former teammate. “I spoke to him and we settled things,” Trimble said. “I’m not mad at Ven at all. Ven does what he has to. It’s Ven’s decision and he’s my guy. He was my guy this whole last year.”
Now, Trimble has new guys and he’s the guy running things for the Tar Heels.
