By Jeff Hamlin
Sports Director

He’s been to Toronto, New Jersey and now Orlando.

But Vince Carter knows that his extended family includes the friends and coaches he had in Chapel Hill.

Carter will be a part of the UNC Alumni Game tonight at the Smith Center which will serve as a kickoff to the 100th anniversary of UNC basketball. The contest, which is already sold out, will feature nine members of the 2005 national championship team. There are also five members of last April’s national championship squad slated to participate.

Carter’s stint at UNC represented a time of transition in Carolina basketball. He played on Dean Smith’s last team in 1997, a squad that went to the Final Four. He also was a member of Bill Guthridge’s first team that also went to the Final Four.

But the legacy of his stint at UNC is the friends he made over ten years ago that he still keeps in contact with.

While the contest is slated to be between the 2005 versus 2009 teams, Tyler Hansbrough won’t be in action because of a shin injury. Deon Thompson and Ed Davis also won’t play because, well, they’re not alumni.