De’Jour Reaves, one of the leading scorers on the Northern Colorado men’s basketball team this season and one of the top players in the Big Sky Conference, is leaving the Bears’ program after one season.
Reaves, a 6-foot-0 junior guard from Syracuse, New York, has entered the transfer portal, which is a database of athletes who’ve indicated an interest to leave a program for another college or university.
Joe Tipton, a national reporter for the website on3.com, reported March 14 on Reaves’ intention to transfer citing information from Reaves’ agent Daniel Poneman. On3 covers college sports and name, image and likeness issues, which is known as NIL.
The Twitter account @RivalsPortal reported Monday that Reaves’ name is in the portal.
Reaves said Tuesday his interest in leaving UNC is based on the need for a new start. He played two seasons at junior college Trinidad State in Trinidad before joining the Bears and he’s interested in relocating elsewhere. He does not yet know where he’ll play next year.
“I need a fresh start somewhere else,” Reaves said. “A new state, a big city. I love the coaches (at UNC). I love every single one of them.”
Reaves scored 1,111 points in two seasons at Trinidad. He averaged 23.5 points in his final season in 2022-23.
Reaves was UNC’s second-leading scorer, behind Saint Thomas, with 14.9 points per game. He shot 38% from 3-point range (46 of 121), averaged 3.5 rebounds and was third on the team in minutes per game at 29.2 — with most of those coming off the bench.
Earlier this month, he was named the top reserve in the Big Sky Conference this season.
Reaves played in 30 of UNC’s 32 games this year. He missed a couple of games with an injury.
Reaves started the first 11 games at UNC before getting hurt. He came off the bench with the flow of the new lineup and was a dominant player for the majority of the season.
He had eight games where he scored at least 20 points including four straight during the Big Sky Conference schedule Feb. 8, 10, 15 and 17. UNC had a 3-1 record in those game. The lone loss was in overtime Feb. 15 at Portland State.
Reaves led UNC in scoring with 19 points in the Bears’ 83-76 quarterfinal loss to Idaho State during the Big Sky Conference Tournament.
He was the all-time leading scorer at Corcoran High School in Syracuse when he graduated with more than 1,480 points.
Reaves will not be with UNC (19-13) for its upcoming College Basketball Invitational postseason tournament in Daytona Beach, Florida. The Bears are the eighth seed in the 16-team tournament and will play No. 9 Cleveland State (20-14) at 9 a.m. Saturday.
“Cherishing the good moments and bad moments as a team,” Reaves said of what he’ll take from his UNC experience. “The hard-fought practices we had during the summer. The fun things we did. The team bonding.”