Marcus Paige ’16 Joins UNC Basketball Coaching Staff

Posted on Nov. 8, 2023

Former UNC basketball standout Marcus Paige ’16, known for his three-point shooting and leadership on the court, has joined the men’s basketball coaching staff as director of team and player development.

Paige, who played for the Tar Heels from 2012 to 2016, is Carolina’s all-time leader in total three-pointers with 299. He also ranks third in steals, fourth in free-throw percentage and eighth in assists.

From Marion, Iowa, Paige was named first-team All-ACC and second-team All-America as a sophomore. He earned honorable mention All-America honors in 2016 and was Carolina’s Most Valuable Player in 2015 and 2016.

In the NCAA tournament, he is the only player to make multiple three-pointers in all 13 tournament games in which he played. His three-point shot to tie the game with 4.7 seconds remaining in the 2016 national championship contest against Villanova remains one of the iconic shots in Final Four history.

Paige excelled academically, earning Academic All-America honors three times and winning the Skip Prosser Award as the ACC’s top scholar-athlete in basketball in 2015 and 2016. The Brooklyn Nets selected Paige in the second round of the 2016 NBA Draft, and he played professionally in various locations, primarily overseas.

“The standard for every Carolina basketball player is to be elite in three areas: on the court, in the classroom and in the community,” head coach Hubert Davis ’92 told GoHeels.com. “There was no better example of that than Marcus Paige. I am thrilled to have a person with his character, love, passion and devotion to this program and University be around our players every day.”

Paige said he’s grateful for the chance to give back to UNC’s basketball program. “I’ve always wanted the opportunity to make the same positive impact on players that my former coaches including Coach [Roy] Williams and Coach Davis made on me,” he said. “Basketball has taken me around the world … I couldn’t be happier than to take this next step here with my Carolina family.”

— Cameron Hayes Fardy ’23