Though rare in college basketball, the junior varsity team has been something of a pipeline for North Carolina. O’Han is one of two former junior varsity players on the current roster, along with Caleb Ellis, a graduate student who played in 19 games last season for the school’s primary team.

The N.C.A.A. does not keep track of junior varsity teams nationally, and North Carolina is the only school in the Atlantic Coast Conference with one. Only a handful of Division I universities have a J.V. team.

The junior varsity team at North Carolina began as a freshman team, at a time when scholarship freshmen were not allowed to play during their first year in college under N.C.A.A. rules. That changed in 1972, but North Carolina coach Dean Smith kept the junior varsity team in place to give regular students a chance to be around North Carolina basketball while also letting potential walk-ons learn the varsity system. The current coach of the Tar Heels, Roy Williams, coached North Carolina’s junior varsity team for eight seasons.

When the rules changed, most other universities across the nation disbanded their freshman teams. Kansas once had a junior varsity team, and its previous coaches included current Kentucky Coach John Calipari and Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon.

“More teams used to have J.V.s,” said Tom Konchalski, a longtime New York City basketball historian and recruiting expert. “But there really aren’t that many that have it any longer.”

O’Han said most of the J.V. players stopped playing after two years. He said that Davis, the J.V. coach the previous three seasons, “made exceptions for guys that he believed had a chance at making varsity.”