Seth Trimble announced earlier this week he is returning to North Carolina for his senior season. A few days later, he appeared on the Carolina Insider podcast on UNC’s official website, GoHeels.com, to speak with Adam Lucas and Jones Angell about his decision to return and more.

It was an interesting conversation and quite revealing, as Trimble often is. So, we decided to transcribe the interview for you. Please make sure to watch it as well.

Q: Tell us a little bit about making that decision and being part of the Tar Heels for another year.

TRIMBLE: “After every season, you have to sit back and re-evaluate. I spent a couple weeks doing that, just going back and forth with everything. Once again, at the end of the day the Tar Heels came out on top. Super glad to be back here, be back here for four years. I know that’s not a thing that you see too often, somebody being at a school for four years. I’m just happy to be here and just ready to put my foot down and get rolling for next year.

Q: What starts happening for a player when the season is over? What are the types of things that are going through your mind? What are the conversations that you have to try and figure out what the next best step is?

TRIMBLE: "First, you have to reflect and just appreciate what happened in the year, the good, the bad, what you learned. And then second, you've got to put all emotions aside once it comes time to this period where you have to re-evaluate, because if something bad happens, maybe towards the end of the year, and you go into the whole re-evaluating process, all emotional saying, 'Oh, I want to get out of here.' Something good happens, but you had a bad year the whole year, vice versa.

“You just have to put all emotions aside and just reflect. What went good with the season, what went bad, what was in your control, and what wasn't in your control. So, I went through all that, talked to my agent, talked to my parents, talked to my brother, talked to everybody who I needed to talk to and just kind of got their input. But at the end of the day, it's my decision. So, after you do that, now you sit with yourself for a couple of days, maybe a few days, and figure out what it really is that you want. And at the end of the day, you come to that conclusion. And my conclusion is here."

Q: What was it that was important to you that you felt like this was the best place for you to accomplish it?

TRIMBLE: “What was super important for me was not the comfort but the familiarity that I have with this program, with the system, with Coach Davis, and coming in and being really confident that I can just be Seth next year. I think the last couple of years, I've been able to grow into that more and more, but there's always been something. Like this last year, I wasn't playing my true position. And it was something that I put aside and fully dove into. But is that what I want to do at the end of the day? No. So that's just something that comes with it. But what's most important is just doing what you want to do, putting yourself in the position that you want to be in. And I did that [by] coming back here."

Q: As Carolina is recruiting or courting other players, are you involved in that? Are you talking to some of these guys that are coming to campus and trying to figure out what they want to do?

TRIMBLE: “Absolutely. I’ve reached out to a whole lot of guys now. Coach Davis and the rest of the coaching staff, Mr. Tanner, they pulled me aside and said ‘Hey, we’re going after this guy, can you reach out to him? Tell him how you feel’ this and that. I've been to about four or five dinners now already. Because we don't have too big of a team, I'm the head recruit, and I'm the guy stuck at all the dinners. But I enjoy going to it. I enjoy helping recruit, because at the end of the day, I want a really good team, just how Coach Davis and everybody else wants a really good team. So I've got to be all in on it, too. I’ve been busy myself with it."

Q: Can you tell anything from those dinners? Have you ever been able to walk away and go ‘That guy is definitely a fit’ or maybe ‘That guy is definitely not a fit’?

TRIMBLE: “Yeah, yeah. After these dinners, you can kind of get a good sense of how they really feel, if they’re really into it, if they want to involve us more in the future. You can definitely get some feel. I’ll just give an example. With Henri (Veesaar), I was really confident and really comfortable with Henri in that dinner and I had a really good feeling leaving that he’d have a good chance of joining this program. It’s been vice versa at dinners in the past. You definitely get a good feeling.”

Q: Every year you’ve been here you’ve gotten better. Where is it that you want your game to continue to improve and for you to do whatever it is you want to do, whatever role you want to have, what is important in your mind for that to occur this upcoming season?

TRIMBLE: “For me, first off the mind has to continue to grow. It has to continue to be the most powerful muscle in my body. Physically, I can have all these gifts, but if the mind isn’t right I won’t be able to do it. So that has to be right. Another thing [is], I want to be the most efficient I can be next year. I think I started off real efficient, and then after the injury, my splits kind of went downhill. That's just the truth. My numbers did. So I just want to work on being more efficient and being able to overcome things if I'm affected by it. And I just want to continue just so I belong, honestly. That's the biggest thing, whether it's shooting a three, whether it's being a point guard.

“I see everything that people say. It's a bad thing, but I like looking at what people have to say. And I don't let it affect me too much. I do let it make me angry I guess a little bit, if one emotion had to come out of it. But just to continue to prove people wrong. I see some people saying, 'Seth can't be on the ball. There's no way Seth can be a point guard. There's no way Seth can shoot.' So all of that, all that. I owe it to myself, owe it to my team, and just really want to do that at the end of the day."

Q: What do you envision your role this upcoming year, understanding that it can still adjust and change as we get there?

TRIMBLE: "A leader, just a leader. A leader on a good night, on a bad night, a night that I have 25 [points], a night that I have five. I have to be a leader. I have to be the voice for this team, and I have to be the guy who Coach Davis can just rely on when his voice may not be as heard as he wants it to be in that moment. We had that guy the last couple years, and now we don't this year coming into a new team. Coach Davis, he's putting that all on me now. He wants me to be that guy, just to be as vocal no matter what type of night I'm having, and then he just wants me to evolve. And I want myself to evolve into the best basketball player I can possibly be. If I can play 40 minutes all game next year, that's what I'm trying to do."

Q: It felt like you really grew into that leadership thing the last month or so of this past season. Why did that feel like it became more important to you and as you started doing it more, how did you find it fit with you?

TRIMBLE: “I realized a voice was needed, a voice was really needed for this team. Some guys tried, Coach Davis wanted some guys to step up and say this and that and I was one of those guys earlier in the year. It just wasn’t happening. I don’t know, I just really, really grew into it somehow, some reason, some way. A voice was needed and I was able to step up.”

“I think it’s me, simple as that. I’ve always been a guy who hasn’t been afraid to speak up. I;ve always been a guy who if I needed to get on somebody, I’ll get on somebody. I’ve always been just a leader in my own way. I hadn’t used my voice as much these last couple of years as I really wanted to. In the last couple months, I feel like I’ve really been able to just be me. I’ve been able to use my voice and it’s carried over onto the court with my play and just allowed me to be more confident as well.”

Q: As you have reflected back on [the season], what do you think wasn’t there? What do you think was missing?

TRIMBLE: "I think the experience played a huge part. We had a really young team. A lot of guys, myself included, had to step into a huge role, a new role. I think that got [to] a lot of guys. I think maybe in the beginning of the year, when we were seeing more of those struggles, we weren’t bonded playing together. We weren't a team. Coach Davis would say we were a 'group.' That’s what he would say. And eventually, we ended up becoming a team. We ended up playing for each other. We ended up having that chemistry and just having that love and enjoyment for each other that wasn't there in the beginning of the year. And I think that's honestly the main reason why we saw those struggles. Guys would have bad shooting nights, and when I say, 'Guys,' I'm not saying I'm excluded from this. Guys will have bad shooting nights and get in their own head. And I just think minds would be led away from remembering that this is a team, this is one, this is a family that has to stick together. I think it's really just as simple as that. Coming into this next year, that has to be the emphasis.

“Carolina family, the Carolina culture has always been strongly stamped here, and I don't think we did the best job representing that [last] year. Me as a leader, me as a guy who's been here for three years now [and] going into his fourth season at his program, needs to embrace that and continue to remind everybody that it’s how we do it. Honestly, it starts with me. It starts with the coaches, but we all know the best teams are player led. I’m going to have to do a good job really leading with that.”

Q: How do you prepare for that [being that guy] over the summer?

TRIMBLE: “Me and Big May were actually just talking about this the other day. We were just talking about how the little things matter so much, whether it’s a workout with just me and Coach Paige, my voice has to be used. If it’s a workout with me and a big, my voice has to be used. No matter what, I have to continue to just use my voice and build that habit because if I don’t use it now and go through the day not being that leader that I want to be next year, come August it won’t be there. I have to build it up. I have to do all the little things that matter and I have to put an emphasis on it so it comes second nature and I don’t even have to think about it in August and it’s there for this team when it needs to be. I won’t say it’s simple, but it’s as simple as that.”

Q: You can tell when confident Seth Trimble is there. How do you find that level of confidence more consistently?

TRIMBLE: “Just continue to just find your rhythm. Every game is different and continuing to just trust your work. I think that’s the biggest thing. After I came back from my head injury this past year, I struggled jsut trusting my work. I asked Marcus this question, this question, and this question, and ‘hey, am I doing this wrong?’ I overstudied myself almost because I was so eager to get back to that Seth and I think that set me back even more. Just continuing to trust the work each and every day.

“Us athletes we know the work we put in each and every day, we know our body better than else’s. We know we’re blessed. We got to leave it at that. There’s no more overthinking for it. It’s just playing with a free mind and trust the way you know you can do [it]. Simple as that. My best games, the most confident version of Seth has been the free version. I need to continue to preach that next year.”

Q: You referenced your true position a minute ago. What do you see that as being?

TRIMBLE: “I’ve always been a point guard/combo [guard]. I know I haven’t played that the last three years, but that’s just what I’ve been. I know people haven’t seen that and don’t think it’s there, but that’s what I’ve been and what I know I can do. I’m not saying I only want to be a point guard or only want to be a two [guard]. I know what I can do being involved and I know that’s what I need to step into this upcoming season.”’

Q: Your entire class is gone. What have you learned about yourself as you’ve gotten to the point where you’re the last one standing and you’re doing this by yourself?

TRIMBLE: “This isn’t knocking my guys at all because I see them like brothers. They come and see me, I come and see them. Shoot, I’m gonna go to Nashville this summer and text Big Shaver to come join us. We all have that brotherhood, we all have that bond. One thing it says about me, I think it goes to how I’ve just been able to battle through adversity and come [out] on top. Like I said earlier, it’s really rare to see a player stay four years now and I know I entered the portal last year and I did this and that so my loyalty some people say may not be there.

“I think it speaks a lot on my character. I don’t really have much to put into it. I put my faith in Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ each and every day. I think that honestly has carried me so much. I was really in a lost way last year at the end of the year. I had lost my all my confidence my freshman year once I stopped playing. I worried too much after I got hurt last year, but I’ve been able to continue to overcome and become a better version of Seth each and every day. That’s mainly because of Him. I give credit to my family and the people around me too. They’ve all just helped me overcome and grow as a person.”