CHAPEL HILL — When North Carolina’s players ran out of the locker room an hour before tipoff, Luka Bogavac didn’t join them.
Instead, he stayed behind — frustrated, restless and resigned to the idea that he’d be watching the season opener from the sidelines. The university still hadn’t cleared him to play.
Students held posters that read, “Free Luka.”
Bogavac stretched out on a couch in the locker room and shut his eyes, trying to block out the disappointment.
Then, in a moment that felt like the finish line had finally arrived, Hubert Davis got the call they’d been waiting months to hear.
The Montenegro native had finally been cleared. He was allowed to play.
“Get your uniform on, you’re playing,” Davis told him about 40 minutes before the game.
“The smile and the reaction from Luka, it’s something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life,” Davis said.
When the team returned to the locker room about 30 minutes before game time, they expected to see Bogavac still resting.
Instead, he was fully dressed.
The room exploded. Teammates rushed toward him, jumping, shouting and shoving him playfully — unfiltered joy that stemmed from months of shared frustration.
“To not know if he’ll be able to play in the first game is tough, but it was a happy moment for all of us to see him be able to do that,” guard Kyan Evans said.
Ten minutes later, Bogavac jogged out of the tunnel for warmups — a Tar Heel for the first time. The Dean Dome erupted. He smiled and skipped across the court.
“Just seeing him there in warmups, it put a smile on my face and every single person’s face just seeing him have the relief,” big man Henri Veesaar said.
Most players would have been rattled by the last-minute news — going from out to in with barely any time to process it. Not Bogavac.
With 16:12 left in the first half, he jogged to the scorer’s table to check in. Fans rose to their feet, chanting, “Luuuuuukaaaaaa.”
And almost immediately, he delivered.
Known as an elite scorer, Bogavac found ways to impact the game all over the floor. In his first six minutes, he tallied six points, two rebounds, two assists, and a steal — the stat line of someone who’s been there before. Forward Caleb Wilson said that’s exactly what separates pros from the rest.
Evans agreed and said playing next to Bogavac just makes the game easier.
“When you’re as good as he is, I think it’s easy to fit in,” Evans said. “Especially on a team like this.”
By the final buzzer, Bogavac had played 20 minutes, finishing with 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting, including 1-of-5 from deep, to go along with five assists, three rebounds and two steals. He impacted the game in every facet.
“He can handle it, he can pass it, he can initiate offense,” Davis said. “He gives us another playmaker out there on the floor and I thought he did a really nice job defensively as well.”
The night was more than just a debut for Bogavac. It was a release — months of uncertainty and hope — that he would be cleared as soon as possible.
In the stands, his mother watched it all unfold. She’s with him in Chapel Hill for three weeks, and had already been in town for one — waiting, just like her son, for the green light that would finally let him play.
And on Monday night in the Dean Dome, she watched him take the court for the first time.
For Bogavac, the 94-54 win over Central Arkansas was more than just a debut — it was a valuable experience. With his first taste of college basketball behind him, he’ll enter Friday’s clash with Kansas ready for the moment, no longer wondering when his chance will come.