Bobby Frasor and Jackie Manuel both were part of national championship teams during their years at North Carolina. Now they’ll be helping the Tar Heels in a different capacity.

Frasor and Manuel, both former Carolina guards, have joined the UNC basketball staff, the university announced on Friday. Frasor, a member of North Carolina’s 2009 national championship team, will serve as the Tar Heels’ assistant video coordinator. Manuel, a member of the Heels’ 2005 title team, will be the team’s assistant strength and conditioning coordinator.

Both of the jobs are temporary and will last six months, ending May 15, 2012.

“These are two outstanding young men who have decided to end their competitive playing careers and are looking to get into basketball from a non-playing perspective,” UNC coach Roy Williams said in a statement. “I think this will be a great opportunity for them to focus on what it takes to run a program.

“They’ll set good examples for our current players because they know what it takes to win at a high level.”

CHAPEL HILL-- Roughly 40 seconds into Friday’s “Late Night With Roy Williams” season preview, North Carolina sophomore Reggie Bullock grabbed an errant pass and buried a three-pointer on the break.

Even during the blue-white scrimmage at the Smith Center, the 6-feet-7 reserve didn’t play like the guy who lost confidence in his knee, and ultimately his game, before missing the last nine games of last season because of arthroscopic surgery.

Finally, he says, he’s healthy.

“I’m not second-guessing anything,” Bullock said recently. “I’m feeling OK with it, I’m trusting and building confidence back up with it.”

CHAPEL HILL – The University of North Carolina announced contract extensions this afternoon for men's basketball coach Roy Williams, baseball coach Mike Fox and women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell.
 
Chancellor Holden Thorp and the UNC Board of Trustees approved the new contracts, all three of which were extended through 2018, according to a release issued by the university athletic department.

CHAPEL HILL -- “Super” Dave Harder, the man responsible for driving North Carolina’s basketball teams to road games and shootarounds for more than two decades – no matter ice, winding roads or tight garage squeezes – passed away suddenly last Thursday, leaving the Tar Heels shocked and saddened.

" Dave Harder was a part of the North Carolina basketball family and will always be thought of in that way,’’ UNC coach Roy Williams said in a prepared statement. “He was extremely dependable, trustworthy, and fantastic at what he did.  We will truly miss him, but we will remember him every time the Carolina basketball team steps on that bus."

Harder, an employee at Southern Coach and Coach America for 36 years, had also driven Duke’s football team in the past, as well as well troops and campaign motorcades, and opponents for the Carolina Hurricanes and other local teams.

“Letterman’s Lane,” the brick walkway between the Smith Center and Koury Natatorium on North Carolina’s campus, will now be named for one basketball letterman in particular: Vince Carter.

The school announced today that the former All America has made a $2.5 million donation to the Carolina Basketball Family Fund, which paid for the renovations to the Smith Center basketball offices in 2010 and will support the operating endowment for the men’s basketball program.

It is the largest gift, to date, to the fund, earning him more than a brick on the walkway that honors every varsity player, coach, trainer and manager in the history of UNC basketball.

It only took Raleigh Body of Christ junior Isaiah Hicks four hours Monday night to accept North Carolina’s scholarship offer.

“It was my dream school,” the 6-feet-9, 198-pound power forward said Tuesday, “So why wait?”

Hicks, who is originally from Oxford, is currently rated a five-star recruit, and the fifth-ranked power forward prospect in the Class of 2013 by scout.com. He becomes the first player to verbally commit to UNC in that class. A life-long Carolina fan, he was also being recruited by Clemson, N.C. State and Wake Forest, among others.

UNC basketball coach Roy Williams issued this statement:

"This is a sad day. Anytime you have this type of disruption it is very difficult on the student-athletes, but also for families. It is a sad day for both Butch Davis and Dick Baddour and their families.

"I hope now that the Tar Heel family will get behind Chancellor Thorp, pull together and move forward from this difficult day. Our student-athletes have shown tremendous ability to bounce back from adversity and I fully expect that the young men on the football team will continue to do that and represent UNC with the same heart and effort that they did last fall."

Last season, UNC guards Reggie Bullock and Dexter Strickland both suffered severe knee injuries.
 
They are each progressing at different speeds, but it seems like both will be healthy when practice begins.
 
Bullock tore a lateral meniscus in his left knee, and had to undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair the damage. He has since been rehabbing, and although he is not back to 100 percent, UNC coach Roy Williams expects for him to be recover soon.

Less than two months ago, North Carolina’s Roy Williams and Kentucky’s John Calipari were battling to advance to the NCAA Final Four. May 20, they – as well as scores of other NCAA basketball coaches, pro athletes and celebrities – will come together to help kids who are battling cancer.

Williams and Calipari, whose teams will likely be ranked 1-2 in the polls come next fall, will be two of the guests of honor at the sixth annual Dick Vitale Gala in Sarasota, Fla. The goal, again, will be to raise more than $1 million for The V Foundation for Cancer Research. The event – which includes 800 tickets at $1,000 apiece – has sold out; but people can donate by logging on to dickvitaleonline.com or calling 1800-4JIMMYV.

“ We compete against each other all season, we recruit against each other, but now we also come together to do something special,’’ Williams said last week. “ ... And I hope this will raise a lot more money for an important cause.”